Dozens of journalists in Belarus have been imprisoned in recent years under a crackdown by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Reporters and human rights groups say the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the U.S. Agency for Global Media have put dozens of journalists at risk, especially those who defied authoritarian regimes to help fulfill the U.S. mission of delivering uncensored news to parts of the world under repressive rule.

U.S. officials say Belarus has released three people, including an American and a journalist, who’d been detained for more than three years.