“Without us, you wouldn’t know…”: Inside the secrets Belarus wanted buried, until reporters exposed them

Since August 2020, more than 400 jour­nal­ists have left Belarus due to per­se­cu­tion. Around 30 inde­pen­dent out­lets have relo­cat­ed abroad. They con­tin­ue work­ing now in some of the harsh­est con­di­tions in Europe.

Crim­i­nal cas­es are being opened against inde­pen­dent reporters, edi­to­r­i­al offices are declared “extrem­ist for­ma­tions,” and read­ers, experts, and sources who coop­er­ate with them face prison. Inde­pen­dent media web­sites are blocked, bud­gets are min­i­mal. But despite threats, an infor­ma­tion block­ade, and finan­cial dif­fi­cul­ties, Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists remain in the pro­fes­sion and con­tin­ue report­ing on what is real­ly hap­pen­ing in Belarus.

To high­light this work, the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists launched the project “With­out us, you wouldn’t know…” It shows what facts, events, and prob­lems in Belarus would have stayed hid­den if not for inde­pen­dent media and jour­nal­ists.

In this arti­cle, we present some exam­ples. More about the work and impact of Belaru­sian inde­pen­dent media can be found on the project’s page “With­out us, you wouldn’t know…”

A drone det­o­nat­ed down­town, yet offi­cials said noth­ing

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale inva­sion in Ukraine, Belaru­sian inde­pen­dent media have been cov­er­ing how Belaru­sian ter­ri­to­ry is being drawn into mil­i­tary activ­i­ty and the risks this cre­ates for the pop­u­la­tion.

One of the most telling sto­ries was the crash of a Russ­ian drone into a school in the small city of Khoini­ki in Feb­ru­ary 2025. It hap­pened in the city cen­ter, among res­i­den­tial build­ings, near the local admin­is­tra­tion, shops, and a library. At night, res­i­dents heard an explo­sion, and some areas were evac­u­at­ed. But no state insti­tu­tion report­ed any­thing, and the local news­pa­per remained silent.

Журналісты лакалізавалі верагоднае месца падзення дрона. Выява: zerkalo.io

The inci­dent was report­ed by the Belaru­sian media out­let Zerka­lo, cre­at­ed in exile by for­mer jour­nal­ists of the largest Belaru­sian news out­lel Tut.by after it was destroyed by the author­i­ties. Even from abroad, the edi­to­r­i­al team man­aged to find eye­wit­ness­es.

“We pub­lished pho­tos, dia­grams, and local reac­tions. That was an impor­tant moment, because with­out us, peo­ple in the region wouldn’t even have known what hap­pened. We showed what an infor­ma­tion vac­u­um looks like. The author­i­ties want peo­ple not to ask ques­tions. But how can you pre­tend to not know when a drone hits your city?” said Zerka­lo board mem­ber Sasha Pushk­i­na.

A civil­ian air­port turned into a mil­i­tary facil­i­ty

Thanks to Belaru­sian inde­pen­dent media, details became known about the use of Belaru­sian ter­ri­to­ry at the begin­ning of the war as a stag­ing area for the attack on Ukraine. Jour­nal­ists report­ed on troop move­ments, airstrikes, and Russ­ian mil­i­tary deploy­ments.

For exam­ple, in Feb­ru­ary 2022 the region­al out­let Flagsh­tok from Homel report­ed that the local civil­ian air­port had effec­tive­ly become a mil­i­tary site. Read­ers, despite the risks, sent pho­tos and videos to the edi­to­r­i­al team. This revealed that after the start of the Union Resolve exer­cis­es, mil­i­tary flights began arriv­ing at the Homel air­port. Pub­lic flight track­ers didn’t show them, and offi­cial­ly the air­port wasn’t list­ed among the exer­cise sites.

Il-76 mil­i­tary trans­port air­craft of the Russ­ian Armed Forces at the Gomel air­port on Feb­ru­ary 25, 2022. Pho­to: Flagstaff

On Feb­ru­ary 21, 2022, the air­port came ful­ly under Russ­ian mil­i­tary con­trol. Civil­ian staff and local ser­vices were sent on leave. In the days before the war, res­i­dents increas­ing­ly saw heavy Il-76 trans­port planes land­ing and con­voys of armored vehi­cles leav­ing the air­port.

At first this was explained as arms deliv­er­ies and the evac­u­a­tion of the wound­ed and dead. But on March 20, the Russ­ian Min­istry of Defense pub­lished a video of For­post drone strikes on Ukraine. The footage clear­ly showed the drone tak­ing off and land­ing specif­i­cal­ly at the Homel air­port.

Flagsh­tok con­tin­ues to report on mil­i­tary activ­i­ty in the region, doc­u­ment­ing Russ­ian drones fly­ing through Belaru­sian air­space — infor­ma­tion the author­i­ties try to con­ceal. In anoth­er bor­der region, Brest, jour­nal­ists of the local out­let BGme­dia also report on sim­i­lar devel­op­ments: gov­ern­ment mil­i­tary pur­chas­es, the con­struc­tion of a new bor­der post, and more.

Belaru­sian ‘shamed’ ath­letes barred from the Olympics

When the Paris Olympics took place in the sum­mer of 2024, jour­nal­ists from the sports out­let Tri­buna tracked which ath­letes would be allowed to com­pete. The Inter­na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee had spe­cif­ic require­ments, includ­ing that ath­letes not be part of mil­i­tary struc­tures.

But in Belarus, all ath­letes are linked in one way or anoth­er to the KGB, police, or oth­er sim­i­lar orga­ni­za­tions, explained Tri­buna edi­tor-in-chief Mak­sim Berazin­s­ki. Jour­nal­ists high­light­ed these issues. As a result, the out­let com­piled a “data­base of the dis­grased” of not only Belaru­sian but also Russ­ian ath­letes who sup­port­ed the war.

The IOC did not allow 9 out of 10 Belaru­sian wrestlers to the 2024 Games. Only Abubakar Khaslanov (pic­tured) went to Paris. Source: 024.by

From Rus­sia, only 15 ath­letes went to the Olympics — the low­est num­ber in his­to­ry. From Belarus, 17 par­tic­i­pat­ed.

Jour­nal­ists were also able to restrict ath­letes’ involve­ment in ide­o­log­i­cal events sup­port­ing the war. Pre­vi­ous­ly, this hap­pened often in Rus­sia, but Belaru­sian ath­letes also felt free to make such state­ments.

“When we sim­ply start­ed doc­u­ment­ing this and fil­ing every­thing, loud pub­lic sup­port for the war dropped sig­nif­i­cant­ly. And I think that’s a very impor­tant sto­ry in terms of lim­it­ing pro­pa­gan­da,” said Tri­buna edi­tor-in-chief Mak­sim Berazin­s­ki.

Cit­i­zens denied cru­cial updates on COVID-19 and nuclear plant prob­lems

The Belaru­sian author­i­ties try to present a “pret­ty pic­ture” of life in Belarus in their con­trolled media, where pub­li­ca­tions are cen­sored and sub­ject to strict ide­o­log­i­cal con­trol. Mean­while, the pub­lic is deprived of vital infor­ma­tion that can direct­ly affect their lives. Such issues only become known after they are exposed by inde­pen­dent media.

For exam­ple, Euro­ra­dio was among the first to report on a crit­i­cal food short­age, pric­ing prob­lems, and the con­se­quences of gov­ern­ment reg­u­la­tion. And jour­nal­ists from Zerka­lo revealed that the Belaru­sian Nuclear Pow­er Plant (Bel­NPP) had stopped oper­at­ing.

“It was just a tech­ni­cal fact: the plant had been dis­con­nect­ed from the grid, but all the state media stayed silent,” recalled Sasha Pushk­i­na. “When a nuclear plant shuts down, that’s infor­ma­tion soci­ety must know. It’s a mat­ter of safe­ty. And when we write about it, that already has an impact. After our report, the Min­istry of Ener­gy was forced to admit that Bel­NPP was indeed offline.”

The most noto­ri­ous exam­ple is how the Belaru­sian author­i­ties hid infor­ma­tion about COVID-19 from their own pop­u­la­tion. They manip­u­lat­ed infec­tion sta­tis­tics, and mor­tal­i­ty data was ful­ly clas­si­fied and not pub­lished from 2020 to 2025. They stayed silent about short­ages of masks, ven­ti­la­tors, and inter­rup­tions in hos­pi­tal oper­a­tions. All this only became known through inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ists’ reports.

One of the first out­lets to cov­er COVID-19 in Belarus was Viteb­s­ki Kuri­er News, because the epi­dem­ic began in Vit­seb­sk after local shoe fac­to­ry man­age­ment returned from a trade fair in Milan. At the time, the out­let became a cru­cial source of truth­ful infor­ma­tion for both res­i­dents and oth­er media.

Belaru­sian detainees made to work for Ger­man law­mak­er

 Despite pres­sure and harsh work­ing con­di­tions, Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists achieved break­throughs in inves­tiga­tive report­ing. This was pos­si­ble thanks to new oppor­tu­ni­ties to col­lab­o­rate with for­eign col­leagues, access to data­bas­es obtained by the hack­er col­lec­tive Cyber Par­ti­sans, and — most impor­tant­ly — Belaru­sians them­selves, even from with­in the state sys­tem, shar­ing insid­er infor­ma­tion because they are dis­sat­is­fied and want change in the coun­try.

The inves­tiga­tive media out­let Buro was found­ed in exile and has been oper­at­ing for only a year and a half. But dur­ing that time, it uncov­ered numer­ous schemes through which the Belaru­sian author­i­ties and allied busi­ness­men bypassed Euro­pean sanc­tions and even helped sup­ply Rus­sia with West­ern tech­nol­o­gy lat­er used to pro­duce weapons.

Buro jour­nal­ists wrote exten­sive­ly about hid­den busi­ness­es and cor­rup­tion in the Lukashen­ka fam­i­ly and its inner cir­cle. They also revealed that the Belaru­sian dic­ta­tor has an ille­git­i­mate daugh­ter. One of their biggest sto­ries was an inves­ti­ga­tion into the Belaru­sian Red Cross, which showed the orga­ni­za­tion spend­ing inter­na­tion­al grant mon­ey on an inflat­ed staff and cost­ly trips. As a result, the UN announced it would cut ties with the Belaru­sian Red Cross. In Belarus, the outlet’s web­site was blocked just 30 min­utes after the sto­ry was pub­lished.

Anoth­er high-pro­file case was an inves­ti­ga­tion by Reform.news into plan­ta­tions in Belarus owned by Ger­man MP Jörg Dor­nau of the Alter­na­tive for Ger­many par­ty. His com­pa­ny used forced labor of Belaru­sian polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, keep­ing them in inhu­mane con­di­tions and pay­ing almost noth­ing.

How region­al out­lets use insid­er infor­ma­tion to impact local pow­er

It is cru­cial that the ecosys­tem of inde­pen­dent Belaru­sian media in exile has pre­served local out­lets. For many com­mu­ni­ties, they are now the only source of inde­pen­dent infor­ma­tion about their regions. Impor­tant­ly, they still man­age to influ­ence local author­i­ties.

A clear exam­ple is the news­room of Hrodna.life, which has been oper­at­ing out­side Belarus since 2022. Jour­nal­ists main­tained com­mu­ni­ca­tion with local res­i­dents and mon­i­tor moods and events in their city through social media and open sources.

For instance, despite being labeled “extrem­ist,” the out­let man­aged to force expla­na­tions from the author­i­ties when mon­u­ments to Belaru­sian insur­gents of the 19th cen­tu­ry, who fought against the Russ­ian Empire, sud­den­ly began to be removed in Hrod­na. After crit­i­cal pub­li­ca­tions by Hrodna.life, local offi­cials car­ried out hous­ing and road repairs and sus­pend­ed plans to build a giant flag­pole right in the his­toric cen­ter, oppo­site the church.

Even back when it still oper­at­ed inside Belarus, the news­room of Orsha.eu built a strong net­work for gath­er­ing infor­ma­tion, and it con­tin­ues to receive insid­er tips. For exam­ple, the out­let report­ed on a shock­ing case when Russ­ian police offi­cers crossed the open bor­der into the Orsha Dis­trict while under the influ­ence of drugs. One of them killed anoth­er right on the high­way.

Pho­to from the scene of the events from the press ser­vice of the Min­istry of Inter­nal Affairs of the Repub­lic of Belarus, pub­lished after the news on the web­site orsha.eu

The Belaru­sian author­i­ties tried to cov­er up the inci­dent, but Orsha.eu’s pub­li­ca­tion sparked a wide reac­tion. Peo­ple began dis­cussing in com­ments and on social media the prob­lem of open bor­ders and the threats com­ing from Rus­sia.

The work of region­al jour­nal­ists is often picked up by nation­wide media.

“It’s like small and big rivers. With­out the small­er ones, it becomes hard­er for the big resources to func­tion. Some infor­ma­tion would nev­er reach read­ers at all,” explained BGme­dia edi­tor-in-chief Vik­tar Marchuk.

For instance, BGme­dia jour­nal­ists uncov­ered impor­tant details about the con­struc­tion of a tox­ic plant in Brest and the sharp decline in the work­ing-age pop­u­la­tion in the region.

Pre­vi­ous­ly, Brest jour­nal­ists wrote a lot about res­i­dents’ protests against the con­struc­tion of a bat­tery plant — because of this, their edi­to­r­i­al office was deprived of its office. Now BGme­dia is not let­ting infor­ma­tion about a new tox­ic enter­prise in Brest remain silent. Archive pho­to: BGme­dia

But for small local out­lets in exile, secur­ing fund­ing and attract­ing for­eign donors is the hard­est chal­lenge. Right now, both BGme­dia and Viteb­s­ki Kuri­er News have launched fundrais­ing cam­paigns just to cov­er staff salaries, as their sit­u­a­tion has become crit­i­cal.

Belaru­sian-lan­guage con­tent against the “Russ­ian world”

Inside Belarus, a pol­i­cy of Rus­sian­iza­tion is being enforced: the Belaru­sian lan­guage is hard­ly used, and nation­al cul­ture, tra­di­tions, and his­to­ry are being pushed out of the pub­lic space. In this con­text, inde­pen­dent Belaru­sian media in exile play anoth­er vital role: pre­serv­ing nation­al con­scious­ness and iden­ti­ty. They do so through sto­ries that reflect a Belarus-cen­tered per­spec­tive on his­to­ry and cur­rent events. Even the mere fact of pub­lish­ing in the Belaru­sian lan­guage becomes sig­nif­i­cant.

One such out­let is PALATNO, which col­lects fas­ci­nat­ing facts about Belaru­sian lan­guage and cul­ture, offers engag­ing sto­ries about his­to­ry, and works exten­sive­ly with archives and mem­oirs.

One of the hero­ines of the pod­cast “Land of Free­dom” — lit­tle Ros­alind sailed with her moth­er from Belarus to Amer­i­ca on a ship for 10 days. Image: PALATNO

Did you know, for exam­ple, that Stanis­lau Albrecht Radziv­il, an aris­to­crat from a famous West­ern Belaru­sian noble fam­i­ly, helped John Kennedy become pres­i­dent? Or that the first pres­i­dent of Hawaii was Belaru­sian?

Any Belaru­sian-lan­guage con­tent — and espe­cial­ly high-qual­i­ty con­tent — con­tributes to pre­serv­ing Belaru­sian­ness and dis­tanc­ing from the “Russ­ian world,” believes PALATNO edi­tor Zoya Khrut­skaya.

“I am con­vinced that we need many more diverse projects in Belaru­sian. Expand­ing the Belaru­sian-lan­guage space is one of the keys to Belarus’s inde­pen­dence and sov­er­eign­ty.”