“It is crucial that Belarusian jailed journalists are not forgotten”, says BAJ chairperson Andrei Bastunets

Andrei Bas­tunets, BAJ chair­per­son, will address the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion of jour­nal­ism in Belarus, exam­ine the cir­cum­stances fac­ing Belaru­sian exiled jour­nal­ists and share the work BAJ car­ries out to help its jour­nal­ist col­leagues.

Andrei Bas­tunets, BAJ chair­per­son. Pho­to by BAJ

The Belarus Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ) will inau­gu­rate the pho­to exhi­bi­tion ‘Media Prison in the Cen­tre of Europe’, as part of the Inter­na­tion­al Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (IFJ)‘s Annu­al Gen­er­al Assem­bly and Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee meet­ings, held from 9 to 11 June in in Mon­tre­al, Cana­da in coor­di­na­tion with its affil­i­ate, the Fédéra­tion nationale de la com­mu­ni­ca­tion et de la cul­ture (FNCC-CSN). 

Belarus is the biggest jail­er of jour­nal­ists in Europe. Could you describe the state of jour­nal­ism and media free­dom in the coun­try? 

A.B: It has now been four-and-a-half years since the protests against the fraud­u­lent pres­i­den­tial elec­tions in Belarus were bru­tal­ly sup­pressed. How­ev­er, the country’s repres­sion against soci­ety, the oppo­si­tion, and jour­nal­ists con­tin­ues to this day.

Ali­ak­san­dr Lukashen­ka, who has been in pow­er in Belarus for over 30 years, has called civ­il soci­ety and inde­pen­dent media a “tumour” that must be cut out. In an inter­view with a BBC jour­nal­ist, Lukashen­ka warned: “…We will cut out all the scum that you have financed.” The author­i­ties have been car­ry­ing out this order. Almost 2,000 non-gov­ern­men­tal organ­i­sa­tions have been shut down in Belarus, includ­ing the IFJ-affil­i­at­ed Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ), which was banned in 2023.

When the BAJ con­tin­ued its work in exile, we were labelled an extrem­ist group, and our com­mu­ni­ca­tions chan­nels, – our web­site, social media, even our logo – were declared extrem­ist mate­ri­als.

This is the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion for almost all inde­pen­dent Belaru­sian media. They are forced to work in exile and have been des­ig­nat­ed as ‘extrem­ist groups’ in their home coun­try.

How­ev­er, the hard­est part for me and the BAJ is the peo­ple who end­ed up behind bars. Forty jour­nal­ists and media work­ers are impris­oned in Belarus today. They have received harsh sen­tences – some up to 12 or 14 years – just for per­form­ing their pro­fes­sion­al duties.

Accord­ing to Reporters With­out Bor­ders, Belarus is the lead­ing coun­try in Europe in terms of the num­ber of impris­oned jour­nal­ists. In total, about 1,200 peo­ple in Belarus have been offi­cial­ly recog­nised as polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, and that num­ber is like­ly incom­plete.

IFJ rep­re­sen­ta­tives stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with impris­oned Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists dur­ing the Annu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing and Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee meet­ing in Mon­tre­al, Cana­da, on 10 June. Cred­it: BAJ

How­ev­er, I don’t want to talk about num­bers. I’d pre­fer to talk about indi­vid­u­als. Even in my worst night­mares, I couldn’t imag­ine that so many of my good acquain­tances and close friends – jour­nal­ists and human rights defend­ers – would end up behind bars.

Harass­ment and per­se­cu­tion of jour­nal­ists by Lukashen­ka’s regime goes beyond the bor­ders of Belarus. Could you explain the sit­u­a­tion fac­ing Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists in exile? 

Even when they have left the coun­try, Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists can­not feel safe, because their rights are still restrict­ed by the gov­ern­ment in their coun­try of ori­gin. So they can­not sell their homes or cars in Belarus, since the author­i­ties require their pres­ence in the coun­try for these trans­ac­tions. More­over, if the exiled jour­nal­ists return to Belarus, they and BAJ mem­bers are threat­ened with arrest. Exiled jour­nal­ists can­not even renew their pass­ports when these expire, since embassies have stopped issu­ing pass­ports to cit­i­zens liv­ing abroad: this direct­ly impacts all those who fled repres­sion. Con­se­quent­ly, more and more Belaru­sians liv­ing abroad have expired pass­ports. And author­i­ties in the coun­tries where they are exiled can­not always help these peo­ple to obtain offi­cial doc­u­ments.

Belaru­sian author­i­ties are increas­ing­ly using the “spe­cial pro­ceed­ings” as a tool of repres­sion. These include the so-called crim­i­nal con­vic­tions of exiled jour­nal­ists, activists and politi­cians in absen­tia, as well as the pos­si­bil­i­ty of con­fis­cat­ing their prop­er­ty in Belarus. 

Fam­i­lies of exiled cit­i­zens suf­fer from pres­sure and harass­ment. Crim­i­nal police do search­es in their apart­ments and these fam­i­ly mem­bers are sum­moned to law enforce­ment agen­cies for inter­ro­ga­tions, or threat­ened with pun­ish­ment, among oth­er tac­tics.   

In 2023 the BAJ was labelled an ‘extrem­ist’ group and banned in Belarus. What did this mean for the Asso­ci­a­tion? How does BAJ help Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists in exile? 

To pre­vent the activ­i­ties of inde­pen­dent media, author­i­ties con­tin­ue to apply leg­is­la­tion on coun­ter­ing extrem­ism. The major­i­ty of inde­pen­dent media and media organ­i­sa­tions, includ­ing the BAJ, have been labelled in Belarus as extrem­ist groups. At the begin­ning of 2025, 257 organ­i­sa­tions were on the government’s list of extrem­ist groups. 

This ban means that every activist and leader of the BAJ is in direct dan­ger of arbi­trary crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion in Belarus – just for doing our aware­ness-rais­ing, advo­ca­cy and cam­paign­ing activ­i­ties in sup­port of our col­leagues in need. To help exiled jour­nal­ists, the BAJ team organ­is­es cours­es on infor­ma­tion secu­ri­ty. It also helps BAJ mem­bers who are being pros­e­cut­ed, such as pro­vid­ing them with legal assis­tance and lead­ing inter­na­tion­al advo­ca­cy cam­paigns.

What can unions and jour­nal­ists across the world do to sup­port Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists?

Sol­i­dar­i­ty means a lot to Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists nowa­days. The BAJ con­tin­ues its Marathon of Sol­i­dar­i­ty with impris­oned Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists and media work­ers. Since this ini­tia­tive was launched in May 2023, the marathon has been sup­port­ed 43 times in 26 coun­tries, 35 cities and on almost all con­ti­nents. The cam­paign has been sup­port­ed by the IFJ, EFJ, IFEX, Reporters With­out Bor­ders, Glob­al Affairs Cana­da, Jour­nal­ists for Human Rights, and oth­ers.

It would be extreme­ly help­ful if unions and jour­nal­ists could help us arrange evac­u­a­tion and tem­po­rary retreats for the fam­i­lies of impris­oned Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists, espe­cial­ly their chil­dren. The BAJ would also wel­come any oth­er fea­si­ble sup­port to ampli­fy the voic­es of BAJ mem­bers and jour­nal­ists in Belarus and in exile. This sup­port would be deeply appre­ci­at­ed.

As part of the IFJ’s Annu­al Gen­er­al Assem­bly and Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee meet­ings in Mon­tre­al, the Belarus Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ) will inau­gu­rate the pho­to exhi­bi­tion ‘Media Prison in the Cen­tre of Europe’. Could you tell us more about this?

Forty jour­nal­ists are cur­rent­ly behind bars in Belarus. Inde­pen­dent media work­ers are sen­tenced to long prison terms – eight, 13, 14 years in jail… just for car­ry­ing out their pro­fes­sion­al duties. The Belaru­sian author­i­ties regard them as ‘extrem­ist activ­i­ties’, ‘arrange­ment of mass riots’, or ‘trea­son’.

The BAJ keeps remind­ing our jour­nal­ist col­leagues across the world of the ongo­ing hor­rors faced by inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ists in Belarus. In this world of con­flicts and wars, it is cru­cial to ensure that Belarus, Belaru­sian media and impris­oned Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists are not for­got­ten – and to ensure we do not become a blank spot on the world map. 

The world is chang­ing rapid­ly with wars, armed con­flicts, and trade prob­lems. Human rights’ vio­la­tions in Belarus, the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty’s inabil­i­ty to influ­ence dic­ta­tors, and a lack of pun­ish­ment for those sup­press­ing rights and free­doms in our coun­try… These are unfor­tu­nate­ly all fad­ing into the back­ground.

The pho­to exhi­bi­tion Media Prison in the Cen­tre of Europe. Cred­it: BAJ

The pho­to exhi­bi­tion Media Prison in the Cen­tre of Europe is our cry for help, address­ing the inter­na­tion­al media com­mu­ni­ty. It is essen­tial for every mem­ber of the BAJ to feel the sol­i­dar­i­ty of the jour­nal­is­tic com­mu­ni­ty and to see that we, as Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists, are not for­got­ten.

We need your sup­port as part of the glob­al media com­mu­ni­ty. Join us in demand­ing that the Belaru­sian author­i­ties release jour­nal­ists from pris­ons in Belarus: Free them all!

Let’s stick to the truth, let’s keep togeth­er.

Inter­view by Natàlia Quer­alt, IFJ Cam­paigns and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Offi­cer.