Living Stories at Voices: Portraits of women journalists Aksana Brovach and Georgine Kellermann

On the eve of Inter­na­tion­al Women’s Day, the Euro­pean Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (EFJ) pub­lish­es two por­traits of women jour­nal­ists, Aksana Brovach and Georgine Keller­mann, who shared last week piv­otal moments in their career at the sec­ond edi­tion of Voic­es, Euro­pean Fes­ti­val of Jour­nal­ism and Media Lit­er­a­cy in Zagreb, Croa­t­ia.

Aksana Brovach at Voic­es. Pho­to: BAJ

Belarusian journalist Aksana Brovach

One is a jour­nal­ist from Belarus forced into exile to con­tin­ue her jour­nal­is­tic work; the oth­er is a jour­nal­ist from Ger­many who hid her true iden­ti­ty as a trans woman for 37 years, fear­ing a hos­tile work envi­ron­ment and dam­age to her rep­u­ta­tion. Aksana Brovach and Georgine Keller­mann are two mod­els of women whose strength and resilience inspire admi­ra­tion.

Dur­ing the  “Liv­ing Sto­ries” ses­sion, the two jour­nal­ists took part in a spe­cial pan­el along­side jour­nal­ists Mor­taza Behbou­di, Marc Mar­ginedas and Dušan Miljuš. They then joined small group dis­cus­sions with the audi­ence, who were invit­ed to engage in mean­ing­ful con­ver­sa­tions in an inti­mate set­ting. After 20 min­utes, par­tic­i­pants rotat­ed to speak with anoth­er jour­nal­ist, encour­ag­ing diverse and in-depth exchanges.

“My main mes­sage is to be a voice, not an echo. I am a voice for my col­leagues in Belarus, where 40 jour­nal­ists are in prison.”

Belaru­sian jour­nal­ist Aksana Brovach was work­ing in Belarus for the Repub­lic news­pa­per when her media was labeled extrem­ist fol­low­ing the re-elec­tion of Pres­i­dent Alexan­dre Loukachenko in August 2020. After cov­er­ing the nation­wide protests that rocked the coun­try – and the vio­lent repres­sion of cit­i­zens and jour­nal­ists – she received threats by the gov­ern­ment stat­ing she would face pros­e­cu­tion if she con­tin­ued. “I didn’t want to put myself in dan­ger. I decid­ed to leave the coun­try because I didn’t want to end up in prison,” she recalled. Aksana Brovach, who has worked as a region­al cor­re­spon­dent for lead­ing nation­al media, as well as for region­al out­lets and inde­pen­dent projects is now liv­ing in exile in Poland, where she con­tin­ues to work as a free­lance jour­nal­ist. She is also a mem­ber of the Coun­cil of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ).

Dur­ing the liv­ing sto­ries ses­sion, Brovach point­ed out the dif­fi­cul­ties for Belaru­sian cit­i­zens to keep access­ing inde­pen­dent news as media deemed extrem­ist is made impos­si­ble in the coun­try. They can only access the news through VPNs or plat­forms such as YouTube and Tik­Tok. Brovach also spoke of the dai­ly chal­lenges of pro­tect­ing her sources inside Belarus, rely­ing on metic­u­lous tech­niques – what she calls her “James Bond” meth­ods – to ensure com­plete anonymi­ty. “I could give a source a tick­et to jail,” she explained, empha­sis­ing the high stakes of her work.

Asked about the emo­tion­al bur­den of exile and what keeps her going, Brovach point­ed to her col­leagues behind bars. “My main mes­sage is to be a voice, not an echo. I am a voice for my col­leagues in Belarus, where 40 jour­nal­ists are in prison. Their only ‘crime’ is to have done their job (…) Dic­ta­tor­ships want silence, but we have to be vocal and vis­i­ble. It is impor­tant not to for­get Belarus”.

VOICES fes­ti­val par­tic­i­pants in Zagreb show sol­i­dar­i­ty with impris­oned Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists

A mes­sage that was par­tic­u­lar­ly preva­lent dur­ing the fes­ti­val, where the audi­ence expressed sol­i­dar­i­ty with impris­oned Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists by tak­ing a col­lec­tive pho­to hold­ing their por­traits as part of the Sol­i­dar­i­ty Marathon cam­paign organ­ised by the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ).

“For over four decades I led a dou­ble life – pub­licly known as Georg, a cor­re­spon­dent report­ing from Wash­ing­ton and Paris, while pri­vate­ly liv­ing as Georgine.”

German journalist Georgine Kellermann

The sec­ond woman jour­nal­ist par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Liv­ing Sto­ries ses­sion was retired Ger­man jour­nal­ist Georgine Keller­mann, for­mer head of the Essen office of West­deutsch­er Rund­funk Köln (WDR). At 62, she has embraced her true self as a trans woman. “For over four decades I led a dou­ble life – pub­licly known as Georg, a cor­re­spon­dent report­ing from Wash­ing­ton and Paris, while pri­vate­ly liv­ing as Georgine,” she shared. “My plan was to retire ear­ly and, on my last day, reveal my true self by stand­ing in a black suit and telling every­one: ‘I am a woman. But despite the pre­pared script, her rev­e­la­tion came unex­pect­ed­ly. In 2019, she was on her way to a hol­i­day when she ran into a for­mer col­league at the air­port. Dressed in drag, she was asked if she was attend­ing a mas­quer­ade. Her answer was sim­ple but life-chang­ing: “No, I am a woman.” Since then, Georgine Keller­mann has con­tin­ued her jour­nal­is­tic career while embrac­ing her iden­ti­ty.

Although she has received over­whelm­ing sup­port from her col­leagues, Georgine has faced and con­tin­ues to face abuse and online vio­lence. 

Georgine Keller­mann. Pho­to: from the site europeanjournalists.org

Hav­ing already par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Liv­ing Sto­ries ses­sion at Voic­es Flo­rence 2024, Georgine stressed the impor­tance of this inti­mate for­mat, to fos­ter tol­er­ance, and respect and engage in open and mean­ing­ful con­ver­sa­tions. “Peo­ple take the time to lis­ten to me and ask ques­tions,” she said. “For young jour­nal­ists just start­ing in their careers, these con­ver­sa­tions are valu­able, also to tell them “be who you are”. 

“The Liv­ing Sto­ries for­mat is pow­er­ful because it allows the unveil­ing of pow­er­ful tes­ti­monies and inter­ac­tive dis­cus­sions that none of us will for­get. By shar­ing Aksana Brovach’s sto­ry, the EFJ, togeth­er with its affil­i­ate BAJ, would like to reit­er­ate its full sup­port for our Belaru­sian col­leagues in prison. We also want to thank Georgine Keller­mann for spread­ing an open-heart­ed and brave mes­sage of tol­er­ance and respect and for remind­ing that jour­nal­ists are also human beings fac­ing increas­ing attacks, espe­cial­ly online vio­lence, with real impact beyond the screen. On 8 March, it is cru­cial to cel­e­brate women jour­nal­ists who, before being pas­sion­ate reporters of the truth, are human beings who deserve to work in an envi­ron­ment free from vio­lence and threats,” declared EFJ Pres­i­dent Maja Sev­er.