BAJ calls for end to «witch hunt» and use of «anti-extremist» legislation to stifle media

Just last week, media work­ers from two more region­al pub­li­ca­tions were thrown behind bars. The BAJ esti­mates that at least 45 jour­nal­ists are in prison today.

The fol­low­ing state­ment was released by the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists:

The sit­u­a­tion regard­ing free­dom of speech and the press in Belarus remains one of the most chal­leng­ing in the world. In the «Press Free­dom Index 2024,» Belarus ranks 167 out of 180 coun­tries. Com­pared to the pre­vi­ous index, Belarus has expe­ri­enced a 10-place decline.

A recent study by Reporters With­out Bor­ders has revealed that Belarus is cur­rent­ly ranked fourth in the world in terms of the num­ber of jour­nal­ists impris­oned.

In a recent devel­op­ment, two more media teams from region­al pub­li­ca­tions were arrest­ed last week. The BAJ esti­mates that at least 45 jour­nal­ists in Belarus are cur­rent­ly impris­oned.

The gov­ern­ment employs anti-extrem­ism leg­is­la­tion to impede the oper­a­tions of inde­pen­dent media out­lets. The major­i­ty of inde­pen­dent media and media orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the BAJ, have been des­ig­nat­ed as extrem­ist enti­ties.

In addi­tion to polit­i­cal pres­sure, Belaru­sian inde­pen­dent media are fac­ing eco­nom­ic dif­fi­cul­ties, and for­eign media tar­get­ing Belaru­sian audi­ences are also expe­ri­enc­ing chal­lenges.

Notwith­stand­ing the exten­sive block­ing of web­sites, the dec­la­ra­tion of pub­li­ca­tions as «extrem­ist,» and the relo­ca­tion of media out­lets, the major­i­ty of Belaru­sian inde­pen­dent media con­tin­ue to oper­ate at a high pro­fes­sion­al and tech­no­log­i­cal lev­el. They pro­vide the Belaru­sian peo­ple with inde­pen­dent, objec­tive, and com­pre­hen­sive infor­ma­tion, resist­ing state pro­pa­gan­da and dis­in­for­ma­tion from Rus­sia.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists calls upon

Jour­nal­ists and the media com­mu­ni­ty:

•     To stick to the truth, to unite;
•     To con­tin­ue their activ­i­ties in order to ful­fill their mis­sion: to help the pub­lic make informed deci­sions based on com­plete and truth­ful infor­ma­tion;
•     To respect pro­fes­sion­al stan­dards and rules of jour­nal­is­tic ethics;
•     To restore the sys­tem of self-reg­u­la­tion of the Belaru­sian media.

Belaru­sian soci­ety:

•     To dis­tin­guish facts from pro­pa­gan­dis­tic inter­pre­ta­tions;
•     To read, lis­ten to and watch inde­pen­dent media (tak­ing into account the require­ments of per­son­al safe­ty);
•     To take care of them­selves.

Belaru­sian author­i­ties:

•    To end «witch hunts» and the use of «anti-extrem­ist» leg­is­la­tion to sti­fle dis­sent;
•    To release impris­oned jour­nal­ists and all polit­i­cal pris­on­ers;
•    To restore the Belaru­sian iden­ti­ty in the Belaru­sian state and pre­vent its absorp­tion under the guise of inte­gra­tion process­es.

Inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions and struc­tures, as well as for­eign gov­ern­ments:

•     To remem­ber Belarus in this crazy world;
•     To demand that the Belaru­sian author­i­ties ful­fill their inter­na­tion­al human rights oblig­a­tions, includ­ing free­dom of expres­sion;
•     To con­tin­ue to sup­port the inde­pen­dent Belaru­sian media and civ­il soci­ety.

BAJ Board, Decem­ber 2024