Belarusian Association of Journalists designated as “extremist formation”

Liq­ui­dat­ed free speech organ­i­sa­tion Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ) has been labelled as an “extrem­ist for­ma­tion” by the nation­al intel­li­gence ser­vice KGB, denounced the Obser­va­to­ry (OMCT-FIDH) and the Helsin­ki Foun­da­tion for Human Rights (HFHR). BAJ’s mem­bers and asso­ciates are at risk of crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion as reprisals for defend­ing human rights and could face up to 10 years of impris­on­ment.

On March 7, 2023, it became known that the Belaru­sian State Secu­ri­ty Com­mit­tee (KGB) arbi­trar­i­ly clas­si­fied BAJ as an “extrem­ist for­ma­tion” and banned its activ­i­ties in Belarus under the Law of the Repub­lic of Belarus No. 203‑Z on “Coun­ter­ing Extrem­ism’, adopt­ed in Jan­u­ary 2007 and amend­ed in May 2021. The deci­sion alleges that BAJ Pres­i­dent Andrey Bas­tunets and Vice-Pres­i­dent Barys Haret­s­ki, as well as six oth­er mem­bers of the asso­ci­a­tion, car­ried out so-called “extrem­ist activ­i­ties”. Yet, KGB’s announce­ment fails to iden­ti­fy both the alleged extrem­ist actions con­duct­ed by BAJ mem­bers as well as the nature of these acts. BAJ is the first human rights organ­i­sa­tion to be clas­si­fied as an “extrem­ist for­ma­tion” in Belarus.

Under the Belaru­sian Law on Coun­ter­ing Extrem­ism the des­ig­na­tion of a group as “extrem­ist” is not sub­ject to judi­cial review. This law clas­si­fies as “extrem­ist” any activ­i­ty deemed to “threat­en the inde­pen­dence, ter­ri­to­r­i­al integri­ty, sov­er­eign­ty and foun­da­tions of the con­sti­tu­tion­al order”. Addi­tion­al­ly, an “extrem­ist for­ma­tion” under this law is defined as a “group of cit­i­zens that car­ries out an extrem­ist activ­i­ty; assists extrem­ist activ­i­ties; recog­nis­es the pos­si­bil­i­ty of imple­ment­ing extrem­ist activ­i­ties; or finances extrem­ist activ­i­ties”. Any enti­ty, group, asso­ci­a­tion or NGO des­ig­nat­ed as an “extrem­ist for­ma­tion” is crim­i­nal­ly liable under Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code of Belarus (“join­ing an extrem­ist for­ma­tion”), which was intro­duced in 2021 along with oth­er anti-extrem­ist amend­ments to the Belaru­sian leg­is­la­tion. These changes enhanced the repres­sive arse­nal of Belaru­sian laws used to muz­zle any dis­sent­ing voic­es in the coun­try, includ­ing inde­pen­dent media out­lets as well human rights groups and defend­ers.

Found­ed in 1989, BAJ is a pro­fes­sion­al asso­ci­a­tion of jour­nal­ists that has since then worked to pro­tect the right to free­dom of expres­sion as well as the work and integri­ty of Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists tar­get­ed by the author­i­ties.

Both the asso­ci­a­tion and its over 1300 mem­bers have been con­tin­u­ous­ly tar­get­ed since 2020, amid the ongo­ing bru­tal crack­down on civ­il soci­ety in Belarus. In Feb­ru­ary 2021, KGB offi­cers raid­ed both BAJ offices and BAJ lawyer Aleh Aheyeu and Barys Haretski’s homes in Min­sk, as part of a series of coor­di­nates raids into the hous­es and offices of human rights defend­ers and organ­i­sa­tions. The BAJ offices were again raid­ed in July 2021, and a month lat­er the Supreme Court of Belarus arbi­trar­i­ly liq­ui­dat­ed the asso­ci­a­tion. Since then, the BAJ staff has been forced to flee the coun­try but has con­tin­ued to doc­u­ment vio­la­tions against jour­nal­ists and media out­lets from abroad.

The Obser­va­to­ry and the Helsin­ki Foun­da­tion for Human Rights strong­ly con­demn the lat­est attack against the BAJ and its lead­ers and mem­bers, as well as the ongo­ing repres­sion of human rights organ­i­sa­tions, defend­ers and inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ists in Belarus.

Both organ­i­sa­tions urge the author­i­ties to stop using loose­ly defined “anti-extrem­ist” leg­is­la­tion to tar­get dis­sent­ing voic­es in Belarus, and more broad­ly, to put an end to all human rights vio­la­tions per­pe­trat­ed against human rights defend­ers and organ­i­sa­tions in the coun­try. The Obser­va­to­ry fur­ther urges the author­i­ties to take all mea­sures to pro­tect and pro­mote the right to free­dom of expres­sion in Belarus, as well as the right to defend human rights.

The Obser­va­to­ry for the Pro­tec­tion of Human Rights Defend­ers (the Obser­va­to­ry) was cre­at­ed in 1997 by FIDH and the World Organ­i­sa­tion Against Tor­ture (OMCT). The objec­tive of this pro­gramme is to pre­vent or rem­e­dy sit­u­a­tions of repres­sion against human rights defend­ers. FIDH and OMCT and are both mem­bers of ProtectDefenders.eu, the Euro­pean Union Human Rights Defend­ers Mech­a­nism imple­ment­ed by inter­na­tion­al civ­il soci­ety.

Found­ed in 1994, the Helsin­ki Foun­da­tion for Human Rights (HFHR) is one of the old­est non-gov­ern­men­tal organ­i­sa­tions act­ing in the field of human rights pro­tec­tion in Poland. Hold­ing a region­al scope, HFHR’s main areas of activ­i­ty are inter­na­tion­al and nation­al edu­ca­tion; strate­gic lit­i­ga­tion; pro­vid­ing legal advice; mon­i­tor­ing the human rights dimen­sion of actions tak­en by pub­lic author­i­ties; and organ­is­ing WATCH DOCS human rights in film, one of the world’s largest human rights film fes­ti­vals.

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