Open letter of long-service journalists and independent media executives of Belarus

We, the long-ser­vice rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Belaru­sian jour­nal­ism and lead­ers of inde­pen­dent media of Belarus, appeal to

You —  the cit­i­zens of the Repub­lic of Belarus;

You —  the President’s Office and the Gov­ern­ment of the Repub­lic of Belarus;

You —  the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of law enforce­ment agen­cies;

You – jour­nal­ists of state media, who still have pro­fes­sion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty and sense of con­science;

You —  rep­re­sen­ta­tives of inter­na­tion­al jour­nal­is­tic and human rights orga­ni­za­tions…

We make one plea to you:

SAVE THE INDEPENDENT BELARUSIAN JOURNALISM BORN IN PAIN OF THE TWO CENTURIES!

Hav­ing start­ed with an unprece­dent­ed pres­sure on the inde­pen­dent media, block­ing them on their way to the read­ers, view­ers, and lis­ten­ers, the author­i­ties did not con­fine them­selves to block­ing online media, ban­ning print­ing and dis­tri­b­u­tion of some news­pa­pers, in vio­la­tion of all con­tracts, and deny­ing accred­i­ta­tion to for­eign media jour­nal­ists.

The actions of the state and its law-enforce­ment bod­ies against the inde­pen­dent Belaru­sian jour­nal­ism and jour­nal­ists can hard­ly be called pres­sure or an attempt to lim­it their influ­ence. This is true stran­gling of free speech.

What law can jus­ti­fy the fact that the inde­pen­dent news­pa­per Nar­o­d­naya Volya, which has not received a sin­gle warn­ing from the Min­istry of Infor­ma­tion or oth­er state con­trol­ling bod­ies for more than six years, was deprived of the pos­si­bil­i­ty to print and dis­trib­ute by sub­scrip­tion and through the retail net­work over five months ago? Svo­bod­nye Novosti, Bel­Gaze­ta and a num­ber of oth­er inde­pen­dent news­pa­pers found them­selves in the same dis­crim­i­na­to­ry sit­u­a­tion.

What law can jus­ti­fy crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion of jour­nal­ists for doing their job hon­est­ly and pro­fes­sion­al­ly, as it is now hap­pen­ing with Kat­siary­na Andreye­va, Daria Chultso­va, and Kat­siary­na Bary­se­vich?

What law can jus­ti­fy crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion of jour­nal­ists for cre­at­ing an authen­tic school of pro­fes­sion­al excel­lence, as is the case with Press Club Belarus staff under lead­er­ship by Yulia Slut­skaya?!

What law can jus­ti­fy hun­dreds of deten­tions of jour­nal­ists while per­form­ing their pro­fes­sion­al duties and the use of vio­lence and arbi­trary admin­is­tra­tive actions against them?! *

One can­not help but exclaim: WHAT ARE YOU DOING, PEOPLE IN POWER?

Free­dom of speech is not a fig­ure of speech. By killing the free­dom of speech guar­an­teed by the Con­sti­tu­tion and the jour­nal­ism free from fake news and pro­pa­gan­da, you are killing the state, in the name of which you do evil.

Do you real­ly think that the blunt force of law­less­ness can defeat the force of truth?

STOP!

RETURN FREE JOURNALISM TO THE COUNTRY!

RETURN THE JOURNALISTS WHO ARE BEHIND BARS TO THEIR FAMILIES AND TO THE JOBS THEY LOVE!

RETURN THE COUNTRY TO THE RUE OF LAW AND THE TRUTH!

* Since the begin­ning of 2020, 485 jour­nal­ists were detained, with 98 serv­ing admin­is­tra­tive arrests. All in all, jour­nal­ists spent more than 1,400 days behind bars dur­ing this peri­od. After the elec­tions of August 9, BAJ record­ed 62 cas­es of phys­i­cal vio­lence against jour­nal­ists.

Long-ser­vice rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Belaru­sian jour­nal­ism:

Siamion Bukchyn,

Siarhei Vahanau,

Viachaslau Vol­s­ki,

Ana­tol Viartsin­s­ki,

Fio­dar Via­likase­lets,

Uladz­imir Hlod,

Valery Dubous­ki,

Siarhei Zakon­nikau,

Iosif Kali­u­ta,

Leanid Lev­anovich,

Mikhail Mikhailovich,

Tat­siana Arlo­va.

Heads of inde­pen­dent mass media of Belarus:

Andrei Dynko, edi­tor-in-chief of Nasha Niva,

Vasi­ly Zda­niuk, edi­tor-in-chief of Svo­bod­nye Novosti,

Mary­na Zola­to­va, edi­tor-in-chief of TUT.BY,

Aksana Kolb, edi­tor-in-chief of Novy Chas,

Svi­at­lana Har­da, edi­tor-in-chief of Media Polesye,

Iry­na Leushy­na, edi­tor-in-chief of Bela­PAN news agency,

Ali­ak­san­dr Staryke­vich, edi­tor-in-chief of Sal­i­dar­nasts,

Iosif Siaredzich, edi­tor-in-chief of Nar­o­d­naya Volia,

Andrei Bas­tunets, chair­man of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists,

Andrei Alek­san­drovich, Belaru­sians and the Mar­ket.