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The annu­al Forum of Baltic and Per­se­cut­ed Jour­nal­ists opened on Decem­ber 18 at Lithuania’s par­lia­ment vis­i­tors’ cen­ter, focus­ing on region­al secu­ri­ty chal­lenges and cross-bor­der repres­sion, while the Free­dom Hope Award was pre­sent­ed to Belaru­sian jour­nal­ist and for­mer polit­i­cal pris­on­er Ali­ak­san­dr Mant­se­vich.

Reporters With­out Bor­ders (RSF)’s Dig­i­tal Secu­ri­ty Lab (DSL), work­ing with the East­ern Euro­pean organ­i­sa­tion RESIDENT.NGO, has uncov­ered a pre­vi­ous­ly unknown spy­ware tool used by the State Secu­ri­ty Com­mit­tee (KGB) of Belarus to tar­get, among oth­ers, jour­nal­ists and media work­ers. RSF assess­es that this expo­sure is a seri­ous set­back for the KGB’s oper­a­tions, not least because […]

A for­mal cer­e­mo­ny hon­or­ing the recip­i­ents of the Andrei Sakharov Prize for Free­dom of Thought took place on Decem­ber 16 in Stras­bourg dur­ing a ple­nary ses­sion of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment. This year’s award was grant­ed to Belaru­sian polit­i­cal pris­on­er and jour­nal­ist Andrzej Poc­zobut and Geor­gian jour­nal­ist Mzia Ama­glo­beli.

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists wel­comes the release of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers but stress­es that many jour­nal­ists and media work­ers remain unjust­ly impris­oned.

Accord­ing to inde­pen­dent media, Mary­na Zolata­va, edi­tor-in-chief of the Belaru­sian news media out­let TUT.BY, is on the list of pris­on­ers released fol­low­ing talks between an Amer­i­can del­e­ga­tion led by U.S. pres­i­den­tial envoy John Coale and offi­cial Min­sk.

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ) is launch­ing a new project that ana­lyzes the work of state pro­pa­gan­dists for poten­tial crim­i­nal offens­es.

Sit­u­a­tion in Belarus mass media field: July–September 2025. Review. Down­load PDF.

Belaru­sian author­i­ties have added the inde­pen­dent inter­net radio project Radio Pla­to to the nation­al reg­istry of orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­u­als alleged­ly involved in “extrem­ist activ­i­ty.”

Belaru­sian author­i­ties have opened a crim­i­nal case against exiled jour­nal­ist Iry­na Khalip under an unspec­i­fied “extrem­ism” arti­cle, accord­ing to the jour­nal­ist.

The fol­low­ing jour­nal­ists are in jail at the moment. Kat­siary­na Andree­va, Andrei Ali­ak­san­drau, Dzia­n­is Ivashyn, Andrej Pachobut (Andrzej Poc­zobut), Liud­mi­la Chek­ina,  Valer­i­ja Kast­si­u­go­va,  Dzmit­ryi Navazhy­lau,  Siarhei Sat­suk,  Andrei Famin,  Ales Sabaleus­ki, Ali­ak­san­dr Ihnat­siuk Yauhen Hlushk­ou Ales Marchanka Vol­ha Radzivon­a­va Anton Kazel­s­ki Dami­il Palian­s­ki, Ihar Ilyash Siarhei Chabot­s­ka Work­ers of the Intex-press edi­to­r­i­al office Aleh Supruniuk Pali­na […]

 Belaru­sian author­i­ties extend­ed the pre-tri­al deten­tion of jour­nal­ist Pavel Dabravol­s­ki, accused of high trea­son in con­nec­tion with his pro­fes­sion­al activ­i­ties, until Decem­ber 22.

Iry­na Akulovich has been dis­missed as gen­er­al direc­tor of the state-owned news agency BelTA, report­ed­ly due to a tran­si­tion to anoth­er posi­tion. The announce­ment was made by the pro-gov­ern­ment Telegram chan­nel “Pul Per­vo­go.”

Work in exile does not mean a hap­py end  –  it makes inequal­i­ties deep­er. Fur­ther­more, two-thirds of jour­nal­ists in exile leave the pro­fes­sion, while work­ing in edi­to­r­i­al offices tend to be more sus­tain­able. Researcher and Pro­fes­sor at Salzburg Uni­ver­si­ty, Hanan Badr, dis­cuss­es the col­lec­tive expe­ri­ence of jour­nal­ists in exile.

On 21 Novem­ber 2025, the Belaru­sian Inte­ri­or Min­istry updat­ed its list of indi­vid­u­als “involved in extrem­ist activ­i­ty,” adding Siarhei Chabot­s­ka, edi­tor of the Hrod­na city por­tal s13.

PEN Belarus and the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ) invite inter­na­tion­al part­ners and media rep­re­sen­ta­tives to a brief­ing on the sit­u­a­tion of cul­tur­al and media repres­sion in Belarus.