European Federation of Journalists and International Federation of Journalists strongly condemn liquidation BAJ

Today, in Min­sk, the Belarus Supreme Court held a hear­ing on the dis­so­lu­tion of BAJ, the EFJ and IFJ affil­i­ate in Belarus. For over 25 years, BAJ and its mem­ber­ship of over 1,300 media work­ers has pro­mot­ed free­dom of expres­sion and inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ism in Belarus, facil­i­tat­ing the exer­cise of civ­il, social, and cul­tur­al rights.

BAJ is among dozens of organ­i­sa­tions tar­get­ed for liq­ui­da­tion, with oth­ers includ­ing cul­tur­al, envi­ron­men­tal and her­itage pro­tec­tion groups, the Belaru­sian PEN Cen­tre, the Office for the Rights of Dis­abled Peo­ple, the Nation­al Youth Coun­cil, the Belarus Press Club, organ­i­sa­tions focus­ing on gen­der rights, and groups that sup­port old­er peo­ple.

“After organ­is­ing fraud­u­lent elec­tions to keep him­self in pow­er, the Belaru­sian dic­ta­tor, Alexan­der Lukashenko, pro­ceeds to an out­right liq­ui­da­tion of all sec­tors of Belaru­sian civ­il soci­ety,” — said EFJ Pres­i­dent Mogens Blich­er Bjer­regård. “This is an unprece­dent­ed purge that should mobilise inter­gov­ern­men­tal organ­i­sa­tions. We call on the Euro­pean Union, the Coun­cil of Europe, the OSCE and the Unit­ed Nations to react firm­ly. The liq­uida­tors and the forces of repres­sion must be severe­ly pun­ished.”

“We will assist our Belaru­sian affil­i­ate to main­tain their exis­tence and activ­i­ties. BAJ will nev­er give up, — added the EFJ Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary, Ricar­do Gutiér­rez. — BAJ remains more than ever for us the one and only rep­re­sen­ta­tive organ­i­sa­tion of jour­nal­ists in Belarus. BAJ will con­tin­ue to sup­port jour­nal­ists and media work­ers.”