IFJ demands an end to the criminalization of journalism in Belarus

Pho­to: BAJ

On 25 July, free­lance jour­nal­ist Danil Palian­s­ki, who has worked with mul­ti­ple TV chan­nels, both pri­vate and state-owned, was charged with ‘high trea­son’ in a closed-door tri­al in Belarus. Detained since Sep­tem­ber 2024, he has been sen­tenced to 10 years in prison with an addi­tion­al court-ordered fine of $7,135. As court pro­ceed­ings in the coun­try often remain clas­si­fied, the rea­sons for the charges are large­ly undis­closed, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to legal­ly chal­lenge the ver­dict.

Under Lukashenko’s 31-year-long regime, this is not an iso­lat­ed case. The sen­tenc­ing of jour­nal­ists is more often than not report­ed as col­lab­o­ra­tion with an extrem­ist enti­ty, pro­duc­tion of extrem­ist con­tent, organ­is­ing mass unrest, incit­ing social hatred, and state trea­son. In 2025, 37 jour­nal­ists remain behind bars, and 39 media organ­i­sa­tions have been declared ‘extrem­ist for­ma­tions’.

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ) was labelled as such in 2023. The BAJ is the only inde­pen­dent and demo­c­ra­t­ic asso­ci­a­tion of Belaru­sian media rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Despite recur­ring per­se­cu­tion tar­get­ing the organ­i­sa­tion, it fights to pro­tect jour­nal­ists’ rights and to mon­i­tor the media sphere.

Through­out the years, the BAJ has doc­u­ment­ed sta­tis­tics of repres­sion against jour­nal­ists in Belarus. In 2024, there was a wor­ry­ing rise of ‘silent repres­sions’, where law enforce­ment sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly pres­sured vic­tims into not dis­clos­ing their per­se­cu­tion. As a result of these threats, BAJ refrained from dis­clos­ing many vic­tims’ iden­ti­ties for the year 2024, to avoid endan­ger­ing them fur­ther. The organ­i­sa­tion believes that some cas­es have not been report­ed at all, due to the intim­i­da­tion of jour­nal­ists and their fam­i­lies. Twen­ty-one cas­es of harass­ment have so far been not­ed for 2025.

The fraud­u­lent Belaru­sian elec­tions of 9 August 2020 gen­er­at­ed an intense wave of press free­dom attacks in the coun­try, aimed at elim­i­nat­ing dis­sent and com­bat­ing the rights of jour­nal­ists with dra­con­ian pun­ish­ment mea­sures. This has led to the extreme sup­pres­sion of jour­nal­ism and of civ­il soci­ety at large.

Jour­nal­ists in Belarus are forced into exile, and their work is labelled as extrem­ist mate­r­i­al. They face the con­stant risk of arrest in their home coun­try, pre­vent­ing them from exer­cis­ing their basic civ­il rights, such as buy­ing and sell­ing prop­er­ty or renew­ing their pass­ports. Lukashenko’s regime has made it impos­si­ble for the country’s jour­nal­ists to prac­tise their pro­fes­sion in any capac­i­ty that devi­ates from the offi­cial nar­ra­tive.

Not only is this crack­down on press free­dom erod­ing the jour­nal­is­tic sphere, it is also weak­en­ing civ­il soci­ety. The fam­i­lies of exiled jour­nal­ists are per­se­cut­ed, harassed with inter­ro­ga­tions, and con­stant­ly threat­ened with pun­ish­ment. The fab­ric of a demo­c­ra­t­ic soci­ety is great­ly weak­ened, due to the cre­ation of an envi­ron­ment fuelled by fear. As jour­nal­ists in Belarus are impris­oned and forced to flee their coun­try, organ­i­sa­tions fight­ing for press free­dom lose their work­force, dimin­ish­ing their capac­i­ty to improve the sit­u­a­tion.

The IFJ said: “The restric­tion of free speech and ero­sion of press free­dom under Lukashenko’s regime has been crush­ing jour­nal­ists’ rights to prac­tise their pro­fes­sion in any capac­i­ty. Belaru­sian author­i­ties must stop harass­ing and intim­i­dat­ing jour­nal­ists. We demand the imme­di­ate and uncon­di­tion­al release of our unjust­ly impris­oned col­leagues and we express our sol­i­dar­i­ty with those who were forced into exile and con­tin­ue to live under the threat of arbi­trary arrest.