RSF delivers hundreds of “Postcards for Maryna” to Belarusian embassies in 7 cities, calling for the release of jailed editor Maryna Zolatava

On 6 Novem­ber, RSF rep­re­sen­ta­tives in Paris, Lon­don, Berlin, Bern, Stock­holm, Vien­na, and Wash­ing­ton DC deliv­ered hun­dreds of mes­sages of sup­port for Zolata­va to the Belaru­sian embassies in their coun­try. The date is Zolatava’s 46th birth­day – the third birth­day she has spent behind bars, where she is serv­ing a 12-year sen­tence on nation­al secu­ri­ty charges. Edi­tor-in-chief of TUT.BY, Belarus’most pop­u­lar inde­pen­dent news site before its ban, Zolata­va has become an emblem­at­ic fig­ure, rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the dire state of press free­dom in Belarus, includ­ing a group of 36 jailed media work­ers.

In Paris, RSF Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al Christophe Deloire told jour­nal­ists gath­ered out­side the Belaru­sian embassy, “Dic­ta­tor Alexan­der Lukashenko would like to take advan­tage of inter­na­tion­al news to make peo­ple for­get the repres­sion and ter­ror in his coun­try. We have come here this morn­ing to say no to his regime’s pro­pa­gan­da and to show that we are con­tin­u­ing to fight for the jour­nal­ists in deten­tion in Belarus and to draw the medi­a’s atten­tion to this sit­u­a­tion. Mary­na Zolata­va is sole­ly a jour­nal­ist, the coun­try’s most famous, the edi­tor who ran the coun­try’s biggest inde­pen­dent web­site, and that’s why the regime is hit­ting her so hard.”

Zolatava’s hus­band Vasi­ly Kishkurno, who joined the Paris action along with their two young adult chil­dren, explained how much this sup­port meant to their fam­i­ly, and called for fur­ther sol­i­dar­i­ty with Mary­na and all oth­er jailed Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists tar­get­ed for not stay­ing silent in the after­math of the 2020 elec­tion. “They need this sup­port, and can feel it even in prison, because human warmth tran­scends all walls and even bor­ders. I know one day the sun will rise in Belarus,” he said.

“As the Lukashenko regime’s relent­less crack­down on inde­pen­dent media shows no signs of stop­ping, inter­na­tion­al mobil­i­sa­tion in sup­port of coura­geous Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists like Mary­na Zolata­va is more impor­tant than ever. This out­pour­ing of glob­al sol­i­dar­i­ty makes it clear that the world will not for­get Zolata­va and her col­leagues. Our call to free Zolata­va and all jour­nal­ists detained in Belarus is loud­er than ever — and we will not stop until they are freed.

Rebec­ca Vin­cent, RSF’s Direc­tor of Cam­paigns

RSF offices around the world col­lect­ed post­cards over the past two months as part of its glob­al #Free­Zo­lata­va cam­paign. The “Post­cards for Mary­na” action drew high-pro­file sup­port from British actor Stephen Fry, Belaru­sian oppo­si­tion leader Svi­at­lana Tsikhanouskaya, and mem­bers of the UK All-Par­ty Par­lia­men­tary Group on Belarus.

Ear­li­er this year, RSF’s glob­al net­work mobilised to join the Belarus Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists’ marathon of sol­i­dar­i­ty with impris­oned jour­nal­ists, show­ing sup­port from 12 RSF offices around the world. RSF con­tin­ues to cam­paign to #Free­Zo­lata­va and all jailed jour­nal­ists in Belarus as a glob­al pri­or­i­ty.

Belarus is ranked 157th out of 180 coun­tries in RSF’s 2023 World Press Free­dom Index.

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