Belarusian Media Under Threat: What to do and What Support is Needed? Discussion. November 25, registration

In the sit­u­a­tion of polit­i­cal cri­sis, Belaru­sian media have become one of the main tar­gets of repres­sion for the non-demo­c­ra­t­ic author­i­ties. Under­stand­ing the threat of free dis­sem­i­na­tion of infor­ma­tion, Alexan­der Lukashen­ka and his entourage under­took a series of pur­pose­ful and tough actions to restrict free­dom of speech and free­dom of infor­ma­tion in Belarus. The clo­sure of the largest Belaru­sian media por­tal tut.by, arrests and unjust court sen­tences against jour­nal­ists, block­ing web­sites, etc., are just a few exam­ples of such actions. How­ev­er, the Belaru­sian media are try­ing to sur­vive and func­tion even in such a dif­fi­cult envi­ron­ment, although the chal­lenges are grow­ing as the polit­i­cal cri­sis deep­ens.

How can we char­ac­ter­ize the sit­u­a­tion with the Belaru­sian media now? What are the main prob­lems they face with? What can be done to solve these prob­lems? What kind of sup­port do the Belaru­sian media need under the cur­rent cir­cum­stances? How can demo­c­ra­t­ic forces par­tic­i­pate in solv­ing the prob­lems of the Belaru­sian media and jour­nal­ists?

These and oth­er ques­tions will be dis­cussed dur­ing the expert dis­cus­sion orga­nized by the Office of Svi­at­lana Tsikhanouskaya.

Mod­er­a­tor:
— Anton Ruliou, project coor­di­na­tor at Belarus in Focus Infor­ma­tion Office

Speak­ers:

- Franak Viačor­ka, Senior Advi­sor to Svi­at­lana Tsikhanouskaya, Head of the For­eign Pol­i­cy Depart­ment
— Natalia Beliko­va, Head of Inter­na­tion­al Depart­ment at Press Club Belarus
— Andrei Bas­tunets, Jour­nal­ist; Chair­per­son of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists
— Maryia Sadouskaya-Kom­lach, Team leader for Europe and Cen­tral Asia at Free Press Unlim­it­ed; Non-res­i­dent fel­low of the Cen­ter for Euro­pean Pol­i­cy Analy­sis (CEPA)

Please reg­is­ter here: https://us02web.zoom.us/…/tZ0qduCtqTopGNUi7QAuujr…

Please send your inquiries and ques­tions to: researchcenter@tsikhanouskaya.org

Simul­ta­ne­ous trans­la­tion into Belaru­sian will be pro­vid­ed.