Archive

Inde­pen­dent orga­ni­za­tions and media world­wide have faced sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges due to Pres­i­dent Trump’s announced freeze on U.S. for­eign aid for thou­sands of projects.  Despite these chal­lenges, the largest inde­pen­dent asso­ci­a­tion of Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists (now oper­at­ing in exile) remains com­mit­ted to sus­tain­ing free jour­nal­ism in Belarus, ensur­ing that the domes­tic audi­ence is not dom­i­nat­ed by local […]

The U.S. Agency for Inter­na­tion­al Devel­op­ment (USAID), one of the largest offi­cial aid agen­cies in the world, has been instruct­ed to stop projects fol­low­ing a 90-day for­eign aid freeze imposed by Sec­re­tary of State Mar­co Rubio. The mea­sure affects dozens of inde­pen­dent media out­lets in more than 30 coun­tries, deprived of U.S. sup­port pro­grams to strength­en […]

Barys Haret­s­ki, the Deputy Chair­man of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ), has been placed on an Russ­ian-Belaru­sian inter­state want­ed list, as noticed by Medi­a­zona.

The fol­low­ing jour­nal­ists are in jail at the moment. Kat­siary­na Andree­va Ihar Losik Andrei Ali­ak­san­drau Dzia­n­is Ivashyn Andrej Pachobut (Andrzej Poc­zobut) Mary­na Zolata­va, tut by Liud­mi­la Chek­ina, tut by Valer­i­ja Kast­si­u­go­va,  Dzmit­ryi Navazhy­lau,  Iry­na Slau­nika­va Andrei Kuznechyk, jour­nal­ist RFE/RL Siarhei Sat­suk, edi­tor of Ej.by Kanstantsin Zalatykh,  Ales (Ali­ak­san­dr) Liu­bianchuk Pavel Mazhei­ka, Hrod­na Yauhen Merkis, Homiel Dzmit­ry […]

After five years of inflict­ing an unprece­dent­ed crack­down on the press, Alexan­der Lukashenko is set to run for a sev­enth pres­i­den­tial term on Sun­day, 26 Jan­u­ary. Reporters With­out Bor­ders (RSF) has filed a com­plaint with the Inter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court (ICC) against the Belaru­sian leader for crimes against human­i­ty, as jour­nal­ists con­tin­ue to be over­whelm­ing­ly tar­get­ed […]

Two high-pro­file Belaru­sians, blog­ger Vadz­im Yer­mashuk (known as Vadi­mati) and jour­nal­ist Maria Bulavin­skaya, have faced prop­er­ty seizures as part of ongo­ing repres­sion tar­get­ing dis­si­dents.

Chi­na, Israel, and Myan­mar emerged as the world’s three worst offend­ers in anoth­er record-set­ting year for jour­nal­ists jailed because of their work, the Com­mit­tee to Pro­tect Jour­nal­ists’ 2024 prison cen­sus has found. Belarus and Rus­sia round­ed out the top five, with CPJ doc­u­ment­ing its sec­ond-high­est num­ber of jour­nal­ists behind bars – a glob­al total of […]

We invite you to a press con­fer­ence by the UN Spe­cial Rap­por­teur on the sit­u­a­tion of human rights in Belarus, Nils Muižnieks, which will take place on Jan­u­ary 23, 2025, at 11:00 AM in Vil­nius.

The pro-gov­ern­ment TV chan­nel ONT con­tin­ues its series of broad­casts «about employ­ees of the Amer­i­can media». After the episodes about Andrei Kuznechyk and Ihar Losik, the pro­pa­gan­dists announced a video fea­tur­ing free­lance jour­nal­ist Ihar Karnei. It will be aired on the evening of Jan­u­ary 16.

Blog­ger Ihar Losik appeared for 20 sec­onds in the pro­pa­gan­da TV show «about employ­ees of the Amer­i­can media,» which was broad­cast on ONT on Jan­u­ary 14, 2025. Like jour­nal­ist Andrei Kuznechyk, he was brought to the KGB deten­tion cen­ter specif­i­cal­ly for this «inter­view». The gov­ern­ment-con­trolled TV sta­tion announced a «con­ver­sa­tion» with Losik for Jan­u­ary 15.

The ONT TV chan­nel announced a new pro­pa­gan­da film «about employ­ees of Amer­i­can media». The trail­er includ­ed footage of the impris­oned jour­nal­ist Andrei Kuznechyk, not­ed Nasha Niva.

Pho­tographs of Vit­seb­sk jour­nal­ists Ale­na Shabunia, Ali­ak­san­dr Kornyshau, and human rights activist Pavel Lev­in­au have appeared on police posters list­ing indi­vid­u­als want­ed “for com­mit­ting crimes.”

The pri­ma­ry goal of this mon­i­tor­ing effort is to con­firm or refute the hypoth­e­sis that dur­ing the so-called 2025 pres­i­den­tial “elec­tion,” Belaru­sian state-run tele­vi­sion chan­nels are shap­ing their media nar­ra­tive under the influ­ence of the “Russ­ian World” ide­ol­o­gy and inte­gra­tionist, anti-West­ern pro­pa­gan­da.

The Belaru­sian human rights com­mu­ni­ty made a cor­re­spond­ing state­ment on Decem­ber 28. Siarhei Chabot­s­ka, the own­er and edi­tor of the Hrod­na-based s13.ru media web­site, has been detained for more than two months. 

Dear col­leagues, we sin­cere­ly wish you a Hap­py New Year! May this day serve as a reminder for all of us that even in the dark­est times, a light emerges to guide us toward hope, love, and kind­ness. We wish that, apart from new chal­lenges, 2025 brings you good news, which we all so great­ly […]