Belarus, shaken by three weeks of massive protests against its authoritarian president, on Saturday cracked down hard on the news media, deporting some foreign journalists reporting in the country and revoking the accreditation of many Belarusian journalists. Two Moscow-based Associated Press journalists who were covering the recent protests in Belarus were deported to Russia on Saturday. In addition, the AP's Belarusian journalists were told by the government that their press credentials had been revoked. The Belarusian Association of Journalists said accreditation rights were also taken away from 17 Belarusians working for several other media. WATCH | Belarus president stages machine gun photo-op amid massive protests:As thousands of people have flooded the streets of Belarus to protest the recent election, President Alexander Lukashenko flew over the crowd in a helicopter and emerged holding a machine gun.

Source: CBC News August 29, 2020 23:48 UTC