Open Letter To Imprisoned Journalists And Media Workers In Belarus by Eamon Gilmore, EU Special Representative for Human Rights

On this day, we remem­ber Vitold Ashu­rak, and call for an enquiry into the cir­cum­stances and cause of his death in prison.

On this day also, the Euro­pean Union remem­bers your own impris­on­ment and suf­fer­ing. We wish to assure you that we con­tin­ue to raise at every oppor­tu­ni­ty, all those who have been impris­oned in Belarus, for doing their job as a jour­nal­ist or for speak­ing out about the polit­i­cal cir­cum­stances in Belarus.

Over the past sev­er­al months, we have been bring­ing to the atten­tion of the author­i­ties in Belarus and that of the wider world, the dire prison con­di­tions which you are endur­ing.

We repeat our call for the imme­di­ate and uncon­di­tion­al release of all polit­i­cal pris­on­ers. Your con­tin­ued impris­on­ment demon­strates, not the strength of the Lukashenko regime, but its weak­ness, because it fears the truth and it can­not han­dle free­dom of expres­sion.

I realise that this is a dif­fi­cult time for you, your fam­i­ly and your friends. I want you to know that your Euro­pean fam­i­ly stands by you in the quest for democ­ra­cy. I am con­fi­dent that this effort shall pre­vail.

I wish you well per­son­al­ly and I assure you that we will con­tin­ue our efforts to secure your free­dom.

Yours sin­cere­ly,

Eamon Gilmore

EU Spe­cial Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Human Rights

Names of impris­oned jour­nal­ists and media work­ers in Belarus:

1. Kat­siary­na Andreye­va, jour­nal­ist
2. Darya Chultso­va, jour­nal­ist
3. Ihar Losik, blog­ger and media con­sul­tant
4. Siarhei Hardziye­vich, jour­nal­ist
5. Kseniya Lut­ski­na, jour­nal­ist
6. Andrei Ali­ak­san­drau, jour­nal­ist and media man­ag­er
7. Dzia­n­is Ivashyn, inves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ist
8. Andrzej Poc­zobut, jour­nal­ist
9. Mary­na Zolata­va, edi­tor and media man­ag­er
10. Liud­mi­la Chek­ina, media man­ag­er
11. Ale­na Talk­a­cho­va, jour­nal­ist
12. Valeryia Kast­si­uha­va, blog­ger, edi­tor, polit­i­cal sci­en­tist
13. Ali­ak­san­dr Ivulin, jour­nal­ist
14. Yahor Martsi­novich, jour­nal­ist, edi­tor, media man­ag­er
15. Andrei Skurko, edi­tor, media man­ag­er
16. Iry­na Leushy­na, jour­nal­ist, media man­ag­er
17. Dzmit­ry Navazhy­lau, media man­ag­er
18. Henadz Mazhei­ka, jour­nal­ist
19. Iry­na Slau­nika­va, media man­ag­er  
20. Andrei Kuznechyk, jour­nal­ist  
21. Siarhei Sat­suk, inves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ist, edi­tor
22. Aleh Hruzdzilovich, jour­nal­ist
23. Aksana Kolb, jour­nal­ist, media man­ag­er
24. Yury Hantsare­vich, jour­nal­ist
25. Dzmit­ry Luk­sha, jour­nal­ist
26. Kanstantsin Zalatykh, media man­ag­er

Back­ground

21 May is the Day of the Polit­i­cal Pris­on­er in Belarus.

On this day last year, the activist Vitold Ashu­rak died in prison under sus­pi­cious cir­cum­stances. The cause of death has not yet been estab­lished. The auto­crat­ic regime of Alek­san­dr Lukashenko has impris­oned thou­sands of peo­ple for polit­i­cal rea­sons. Cur­rent­ly over 1200 per­sons behind bars are recog­nised as polit­i­cal pris­on­ers. Some of them were con­vict­ed for attend­ing protests, oth­ers are vol­un­teers, coor­di­na­tors, civ­il soci­ety lead­ers and polit­i­cal activists seek­ing a free and demo­c­ra­t­ic Belarus. Cur­rent­ly 26 media work­ers and jour­nal­ists are in prison for doing their duty – report­ing the facts. Now, they have been cut off from soci­ety and labelled “extrem­ists”, “a dan­ger to soci­ety”, and much more. In jail under false, made-up charges, they suf­fer inhu­mane and degrad­ing treat­ment, some even tor­ture.

It is even more con­cern­ing that recent­ly the Lukashenko regime intro­duced the death penal­ty for “attempt­ed acts of ter­ror­ism”, giv­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty for fur­ther seri­ous abuse. Many of the accused are tried in secret, unfair and biased tri­als, often under fab­ri­cat­ed charges and with no legal safe­guards. Now they also risk the death penal­ty.

Today, I am writ­ing to the impris­oned media work­ers and jour­nal­ists to express my sup­port and sol­i­dar­i­ty. These polit­i­cal pris­on­ers must know that we have not for­got­ten them. After fal­si­fy­ing the pres­i­den­tial elec­tions in 2020, Lukashenko con­tin­ues his war against the Belaru­sian soci­ety. We stand against the repres­sive regime of Lukashenko, which not only vio­lates human rights of its own peo­ple, but also sup­ports and abets Russia’s ille­gal inva­sion of Ukraine.

Join me in show­ing sup­port and sol­i­dar­i­ty to the 1200+ polit­i­cal pris­on­ers. Write to them, let them know that their suf­fer­ing will not be in vain. Read more about the polit­i­cal pris­on­ers and learn how to write to them here.