BAJ study reveals the urgent needs of freed Belarusian journalists

A sur­vey con­duct­ed by the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ) in Feb­ru­ary iden­ti­fied the top needs of Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists and media work­ers who were recent­ly released after fac­ing crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion.

Mary­na Zolata­va on a bus with oth­er released polit­i­cal pris­on­ers. Pho­to: Zerka­lo

The goal of the sur­vey was to under­stand the chal­lenges for­mer polit­i­cal pris­on­ers face sev­er­al months after their release and what kind of sup­port they need — pro­fes­sion­al, social, psy­cho­log­i­cal, or oth­er­wise. Sev­er­al dozen jour­nal­ists who were released in 2024–2025 took part in the sur­vey.

The expe­ri­ence of impris­on­ment and return­ing to life in free­dom is a long, mul­ti-stage process that does not end with­in the first two or three months after release. It is dur­ing this ini­tial peri­od that for­mer polit­i­cal pris­on­ers typ­i­cal­ly receive the most atten­tion and sup­port. How­ev­er, col­leagues need con­tin­ued sup­port in the months that fol­low just as much.

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists has adhered to this posi­tion since 2020.

Top needs after release: Housing, medical care, legal documents

Here are the issues jour­nal­ists iden­ti­fied as most impor­tant after their release:

• Rent pay­ment sup­port
• Med­ical con­sul­ta­tions and treat­ment
• Reg­u­lar­iza­tion of stay (con­sul­ta­tions and assis­tance with paper­work)
• Equip­ment (com­put­er, phone)
• Psy­cho­log­i­cal sup­port

Addi­tion­al needs include access to employ­ment and pro­fes­sion­al ful­fill­ment; “stay­ing in the pro­fes­sion”; learn­ing a for­eign lan­guage; and obtain­ing a driver’s license. Even when some of these addi­tion­al needs do not appear wide­spread, they are often cru­cial for the long-term sta­bil­i­ty of for­mer­ly impris­oned jour­nal­ists.

Giv­en the con­text of impris­on­ment and forced migra­tion, the need for psy­cho­log­i­cal sup­port may have been under­es­ti­mat­ed by respon­dents and requires proac­tive out­reach, BAJ experts believe.

Professional reintegration: Key factor in long-term stability

The sur­vey results show that assis­tance should not be lim­it­ed to basic human­i­tar­i­an sup­port. Peo­ple want — and are ready — to resume an active pro­fes­sion­al role.

The most in-demand pro­fes­sion­al activ­i­ty for­mats (respon­dents could select mul­ti­ple options) were:

• Writ­ing a book — 57.1%
• Free­lance jour­nal­ism — 52.4%
• Return­ing to work in media — 47.6%
• Blog­ging — 38.1%
• Launch­ing inde­pen­dent journalism/photo/video projects — 28.6%

To resume their pro­fes­sion­al careers, respon­dents said they need fel­low­ships and grants (66.7%), for­eign lan­guage study (66.7%), edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams includ­ing AI-relat­ed train­ing (52.4%), dig­i­tal secu­ri­ty train­ing (33.3%), busi­ness con­sult­ing (28%), and legal con­sul­ta­tions.

Blog­ger Pavel Vinahradau after his release. Vil­nius, Sep­tem­ber 11, 2025. Pho­to: Pozirk

Conclusions

The sur­vey results con­firmed BAJ’s pre­vi­ous­ly adopt­ed view on the need for long-term, com­pre­hen­sive sup­port for pris­on­ers after their release: a sys­temic approach that com­bines meet­ing basic needs, med­ical and psy­cho­log­i­cal reha­bil­i­ta­tion, and invest­ment in the long-term resilience of those who have regained their free­dom.