Repression targets journalists in Belarus: international community must respond

Dozens of jour­nal­ists have been intim­i­dat­ed and beat­en by secu­ri­ty forces in Belarus. Many have been detained. Some are still miss­ing. The Euro­pean Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (EFJ) reit­er­ates its call for inter­ven­tion by the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty. In par­tic­u­lar, we call on the Euro­pean Union, the Coun­cil of Europe and the OSCE to take urgent mea­sures to stop vio­lence against jour­nal­ists and cit­i­zens who are peace­ful­ly demon­strat­ing.

Today, jour­nal­ists’ organ­i­sa­tions from the region (see below) are show­ing sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ), which is mon­i­tor­ing the many press free­dom vio­la­tions in the coun­try. The EFJ calls on its affil­i­ates all around Europe to show sol­i­dar­i­ty with BAJ and jour­nal­ists in Belarus and to call on their own nation­al gov­ern­ments to take action.

Accord­ing to BAJ mon­i­tor­ing, 25 jour­nal­ists and media actors are still detained in Belarus: Pavel Pat­a­pau, Ivan Murauy­ou, Mak­sim Berazin­s­ki, Yahor Martsi­novich, Tat­siana Belasho­va, Vitaly Dubik, Ale­na Shcharbin­skaya, Alexan­der Pashke­vich, Ali­ak­sei Khu­danau, Miki­ta Tselizhen­ka, Witold Dobrowol­s­ki (Poland), film direc­tor Mak­sim Shved, Rus­lan Kule­vich (Hrod­na), Alexan­der Dzian­isau (Hrod­no), Yauhen Val­adashchuk (Slonim), Stanis­lau Kor­shu­nau (Brest), Yauhen Nikalayevich (Pin­sk), Ali­na Skrabuno­va (Mahil­iou), Alexan­der Sidareus­ki (Mahil­iou), Dzmit­ry Salauy­ou (Mahil­iou), Dzmit­ry Kaza­ke­vich (Viteb­sk), Ihar Matveyeu (Viteb­sk), Yauhen Yushk­ous­ki (Babruisk), Ales Chy­hir (Babruisk), and Yauhen Hla­holeu-Vaskovich (Babruisk).

With the start of the elec­tion cam­paign on May 8, and until August 11, BAJ has reg­is­tered 133 cas­es of seri­ous vio­la­tions of jour­nal­ists’ rights (deten­tions, arrests, fines, and beat­ings). In addi­tion, at least 10 crim­i­nal cas­es have been start­ed against pop­u­lar blog­gers and admin­is­tra­tors of Telegram chan­nels.

Dainius Radze­vičius (LZS, Lithua­nia): “Today, more than ever, it is impor­tant for the peo­ple of Belarus to get accu­rate and cor­rect infor­ma­tion about what is hap­pen­ing in the coun­try. Inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ists are unable to per­form their duties prop­er­ly due to the actions of the Belaru­sian gov­ern­ment. It is dif­fi­cult for them to col­lect and espe­cial­ly dis­sem­i­nate infor­ma­tion. Inter­net block­ing and harass­ment of jour­nal­ists is rep­re­hen­si­ble and must be stopped as soon as pos­si­ble. We sup­port our fel­low jour­nal­ists in their hard work and we show sol­i­dar­i­ty with all the col­leagues who have suf­fered. We want them to know that in a dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tion, they can always expect help here in Lithua­nia.”

Krzysztof Skowrońs­ki (SDP, Poland): “Pol­ish jour­nal­ists active­ly sup­port­ed the flow of inde­pen­dent infor­ma­tion in Belarus for a long time. Since 2007, Bel­sat TV (Belaru­sian lan­guage TV chan­nel formed by a group of Belaru­sian and Pol­ish jour­nal­ists) broad­casts from Poland. We express our sol­i­dar­i­ty to all Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists from Bel­sat TV and oth­er media. We con­demn actions tak­en by Belaru­sian author­i­ties against jour­nal­ists and pro­test­ers. We also demand the imme­di­ate release of all detained jour­nal­ists includ­ing Witold Dobrowol­s­ki, SDP mem­ber, Grand Press Pho­to 2020 win­ner, who is detained in Min­sk.”

Krzysztof Bobin­s­ki (Soci­ety of Jour­nal­ists, Poland): “The peo­ple of Belarus are fight­ing to defend their polit­i­cal and civic free­doms and their nation’s very inde­pen­dence. Inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ists are on the front line in this strug­gle. They deserve our sol­i­dar­i­ty. Media free­dom and free­dom of expres­sion are a fun­da­men­tal right. We jour­nal­ists are bound to defend this right wher­ev­er it is endan­gered. We appeal to peo­ple of good will to sup­port the Belarus at this crit­i­cal moment!”

Andrei Jvir­b­lis (JMWU, Rus­sia): “Numer­ous accounts of the cir­cum­stances of the arrests of our col­leagues and the bru­tal­i­ty with which they were car­ried out show that this is by no means a coin­ci­dence or chance, but clear­ly a delib­er­ate hunt for jour­nal­ists and the will­ing­ness to intim­i­date them. The almost total lock­down of the Inter­net is the flip side of the dictator’s fear for all truth and free infor­ma­tion.”

Sergiy Tomilenko (NUJU, Ukraine): “It is not a crime for jour­nal­ists to per­form their duties. Mass deten­tions of jour­nal­ists in Belarus, beat­ings by police, and trav­el bans are all bru­tal poli­cies that must be stopped imme­di­ate­ly by the author­i­ties. The Ukrain­ian Union express­es its sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists, which helps col­leagues on this front line in incred­i­ble con­di­tions.”

Ser­hiy Shturkhet­skyy (IMTUU, Ukraine): “In these days we are com­plete­ly with our Belaru­sian col­leagues. Today, the fate of democ­ra­cy depends not only on Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists, not only in their coun­try, but in the entire post-Sovi­et space. There­fore, we call on all par­ties involved to respect the rights of jour­nal­ists. We are with you!”

Helle Tiik­maa (EAL, Esto­nia): “The Eston­ian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ist (EAL) sup­ports EFJ’s call for inter­na­tion­al community’s inter­ven­tion in Belarus to stop vio­lence against jour­nal­ists and demon­stra­tors. EAL also calls Eston­ian politi­cians to put pres­sure on Belarus. The sup­pres­sion of press free­dom and pre­vent­ing jour­nal­ists’ work in Belarus has gone to extreme. EAL sup­ports inde­pen­dent and hon­est jour­nal­ism in Belarus and Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists rep­re­sent­ing free­lance jour­nal­ists. EAL con­demns Belaru­sian author­i­ties repres­sions against jour­nal­ists, who work to inform their coun­try­men and out­er world of the events tak­ing place. Peo­ple have right to be informed. Arrest­ing, assault­ing and fin­ing jour­nal­ists and block­ing inter­net access is not accept­able. At the same time the events in Belarus remind the impor­tance of press free­dom and jour­nal­ists’ inde­pen­dence for democ­ra­cy in a soci­ety. We must remem­ber that these are not self-evi­dent. We must stand for press free­dom and jour­nal­ists’ inde­pen­dence not just under dic­ta­tor­ship, but also in demo­c­ra­t­ic soci­eties. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, there are already deter­rent exam­ples in EU. We must avoid the rep­e­ti­tion of Belaru­sian events else­where.”

Please share our mes­sage of sol­i­dar­i­ty: Jour­nal­ism is not a crime.

We invite all jour­nal­ists’ unions and asso­ci­a­tions to show sup­port to @baj_by and Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists. I stand with #Belarus. pic.twitter.com/L380TK66aV

— EFJ (@EFJEUROPE) August 12, 2020