Media Representatives Join Strategy of Independent Media Sector in Belarus

An expert group of media rep­re­sen­ta­tives has spent almost 2 years to devel­op the Strat­e­gy of inde­pen­dent media sec­tor in Belarus. 

— Many things affect­ing the media have changed since we start­ed, there have been devel­op­ments that led to major changes in strate­gic plans of the media — Iry­na Vidana­va, media expert and mem­ber of the BAJ Board, began the meet­ing.

— We began the work on the strat­e­gy on Feb­ru­ary 2, 2017. The first meet­ing was attend­ed by over 20 rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the media sec­tor in Belarus. Since then we have met five times to dis­cuss the con­tent and the exact word­ing of the strat­e­gy. BAJ deputy chair­per­son Ali­na Suravets men­tioned the most active team mem­bers who worked on the Strat­e­gy: Maria Sadouskaya-Kom­lach, Uladz­imir Dzi­u­ba, Siarhei Vahanau, Tat­siana Mel­nichuk, Andrei Bas­tunets, Pauliuk Byk­ous­ki, Vitaut Rud­nik, and Iry­na Nihreye­va from Ukraine.

Suravets says, the sign­ing of the Strat­e­gy should be fol­lowed by cre­ation of a coor­di­na­tion group, the­mat­ic work­ing groups, com­mu­ni­ca­tions with the pub­lic, and mon­i­tor­ing the results of the Start­e­gy imple­men­ta­tion. Among oth­er ideas, there were pro­pos­als to gath­er annu­al­ly to sum up the results and dis­cuss fur­ther plans.

— The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists has active­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in the prepa­ra­tion of the strat­e­gy, how­ev­er, it is not the strat­e­gy of BAJ, but of a large num­ber of play­ers on the media mar­ket. BAJ is not the sole own­er of the doc­u­ment, it is owned by the whole com­mu­ni­ty. This is an impor­tant doc­u­ment, as it spells out our val­ues. This is a small, but a very sig­nif­i­cant step to grow uni­ty in our com­mu­ni­ty, — said Ali­na Surovets.

— What is the inde­pen­dent media sec­tor? — that is the main ques­tion. The inde­pen­dent media sec­tor in Belarus is very diverse, with dif­fer­ent non-state media and all kinds of con­tent — social, polit­i­cal, enter­tain­ment, news, includ­ing niche pub­li­ca­tions, as well as for­eign media tar­get­ing the Belaru­sian audi­ence, and fran­chis­es, reg­is­tered in Belarus. The inde­pen­dent media sec­tor also includes NGOs (mem­ber­ship asso­ci­a­tions of jour­nal­ists, media own­ers and media man­agers), as well as inde­pen­dent con­sul­tants and media experts, ser­vice non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tions, adver­tis­ing agen­cies, and oth­er satel­lites of the inde­pen­dent media mar­ket, — media expert Pauliuk Byk­ous­ki explains the tar­get audi­ence of the Start­e­gy.

It should be empha­sized that the inde­pen­dent media help peo­ple to con­sume infor­ma­tion con­scious­ly, and to make choic­es based on com­plete and accu­rate infor­ma­tion, and cre­ate a sus­tain­able envi­ron­ment for the exchange of views and for­ma­tion of basic civ­il rights and free­doms.

«The def­i­n­i­tion of an inde­pen­dent media sec­tor plays the role of a sieve, to some extent. It does let those who do not share our val­ues to join our com­mu­ni­ty — Byk­ous­ki explains.

The Startegy is to workwith the following challenges:

- Polit­i­cal pres­sure, restric­tion of free­dom of speech and activ­i­ty of inde­pen­dent media.

- Lack of fund­ing, small­er funds avail­able in the mar­ket for inde­pen­dent media, while the media mar­ket is dom­i­nat­ed by the Russ­ian media.

- Per­son­nel prob­lems of inde­pen­dent media: brain drain, low salaries, lack of mar­ket­ing, sales and SME spe­cial­ists, etc..

- Changes in media con­sump­tion — audi­ences going online, in social media and instant mes­sen­gers, con­tent con­sump­tion on mobile devices, increase in the video and live-stream­ing areas. 

- Lack of coop­er­a­tion in the sec­tor — weak co-oper­a­tion, neg­a­tive effects of com­pe­ti­tion for lim­it­ed resources (finan­cial, human and oth­er).

- Lack of fund­ing, rsmall­er funds avail­able in the mar­ket for inde­pen­dent media while the media mar­ket is dom­i­nat­ed by the Russ­ian media, while onine plat­forms (Google, Youtube, Face­book, Yan­dex) dom­i­nate the glob­al media mar­ket.

- copy­right infringe­ment by mem­bers of the media sec­tor — the mis­use of some­one else’s con­tent, lack of self-reg­u­la­tion in the field of copy­right.

The Strategy defines the following priorities, building on the challenges:

- Over­com­ing legal and polit­i­cal restric­tions on the free­dom of speech;

- Strength­en­ing the finan­cial sus­tain­abil­i­ty of the inde­pen­dent media sec­tor in Belarus;

- Capac­i­ty build­ing for media per­son­nel and jour­nal­ists;

- Adjust­ment of inde­pen­dent media to changes in media con­sump­tion;

- Devel­op­ment of self-reg­u­la­tion in the field of copy­right.

The following objectives have been set:

- to mon­i­tor and pub­lish infor­ma­tion on the vio­la­tions of the free­dom of expres­sion in Belarus;

- to pro­mote the imple­men­ta­tion and pro­tec­tion of the rights and inter­ests of rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the inde­pen­dent media sec­tor, and free­dom of expres­sion;

- to advo­cate for leg­isla­tive changes in the field of free­dom of expres­sion and mass com­mu­ni­ca­tions with a view to lib­er­al­iza­tion;

- to pro­vide con­tin­u­ous legal edu­ca­tion of jour­nal­ists and edi­tors, and oth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the inde­pen­dent media sec­tor;

- to strength­en the capac­i­ty of media lawyers;

- to pro­mote the val­ue of the free­dom of speech in Belarus;

- to defend the inter­ests of free­lance jour­nal­ists;

- to build com­pe­tence of media man­agers in the field of con­tent man­age­ment, human resources, finance, and strate­gic plan­ning;

- to secure the finan­cial sus­tain­abil­i­ty of the Belaru­sian media through inno­v­a­tive approach­es to devel­op­ment of a media busi­ness;

- to improve coop­er­a­tion between the key actors of the Belaru­sian inde­pen­dent media sec­tor;

- to improve the sys­tem of jour­nal­ists train­ing;

- to defend labor and social rights of media work­ers and to facil­i­tate con­flict res­o­lu­tion;

- to research new trends in media con­sump­tion and inform indus­try rep­re­sen­ta­tives about their pos­si­ble impact;

- to strength­en the cred­i­bil­i­ty of the inde­pen­dent Belaru­sian media in the new envi­ron­ment of media con­sump­tion;

- to devel­op mul­ti­plat­for­mi­ty;

- to estab­lish mech­a­nisms for con­flict res­o­lu­tion in the field of copy­right;

- to pro­vide edu­ca­tion and coun­sel­ing on copy­right and to sup­port self-reg­u­la­tion in this area.

The doc­u­ment is the result of coop­er­a­tion of var­i­ous actors, includ­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives of both large and small pub­li­ca­tions, asso­ci­a­tions and indi­vid­u­als. We have tak­en a sig­nif­i­cant step to under­stand the sit­u­a­tion and now have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to build on this doc­u­ment — believes Pauliuk Byk­ous­ki .

— The strat­e­gy was cre­at­ed pri­mar­i­ly for domes­tic use Belarus, but, in the inter­na­tion­al are­na, the doc­u­ment can also become an excel­lent foun­da­tion for under­stand­ing the sit­u­a­tion in the Belaru­sian media sec­tor, — Iry­na Vidana­va says.

— The strat­e­gy can change depend­ing on the changes in the envi­ron­ment. I believe it is a great idea to hold a coor­di­na­tion meet­ing every year and review some aspects of the Strat­e­gy, to keep pace with the time, — Andrei Bas­tunets points out.

— I want to con­grat­u­late every­one on the fact that the com­mu­ni­ty has come to a com­mon strat­e­gy and a com­mon vision of the sit­u­a­tion. This is a small attempt to move for­ward in the devel­op­ment of the media sec­tor, — added BAJ ex-chair Zhan­na Litv­ina .

Pauliuk Byk­ous­ki was the first to sign the Dec­la­ra­tion of the Strat­e­gy of inde­pen­dent media sec­tor in Belarus.  More than 30 edi­tors and jour­nal­ists of inde­pen­dent media of the coun­try signed the doc­u­ment.

One can read through the Start­e­gy and sign the Dec­la­ra­tion at BAJ office.