#BecauseTheJournalist

Aleh Supruniuk and Pavel Dabravolski recognized as political prisoners

On August 26, 2025, Belaru­sian human rights orga­ni­za­tions issued a joint state­ment regard­ing jour­nal­ists Aleh Supruniuk and Pavel Dabravol­s­ki, who are behind bars in Belarus.

August 26, 2025

News

Journalist Aleh Supruniuk sentenced to three years in prison

Friends of the Brest jour­nal­ist report that on August 8 Aleh Suprun­yuk received a three-year prison sen­tence. He was con­vict­ed of involve­ment in an “extrem­ist for­ma­tion.” Pri­or to the ver­dict, he had spent over six months in pre-tri­al deten­tion.

August 25, 2025

News

German MP becomes symbolic godparent to imprisoned journalist Palina Pitkevich

As part of the #WeS­tand­BYy­ou cam­paign, Ophe­lia Nick, a mem­ber of the Ger­man polit­i­cal par­ty Bünd­nis 90/Die Grü­nen, has become the sym­bol­ic god­par­ent of jour­nal­ist Pali­na Pitke­vich, who was sen­tenced by the Belaru­sian author­i­ties to three years in prison.

August 22, 2025

BAJ launched the project “Journalists: The Silent Mode”

Deter­mined not to let the facts of per­se­cu­tion and repres­sion against jour­nal­ists dis­ap­pear in the infor­ma­tion flow or per­ceived as white noise, the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists launched the project “Jour­nal­ists: The Silent Mode.”

August 12, 2025

Accents

BAJ exhibition on imprisoned journalists held at “New Belarus” conference

The project “Jour­nal­ists: The Silent Mode” is a visu­al form of resis­tance to the qui­et era­sure of jour­nal­ists from pub­lic space, the pro­fes­sion, and life — a process that the Belaru­sian author­i­ties have been delib­er­ate­ly car­ry­ing out for the past five years. Belaruss­ian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists spoke with vis­i­tors to the exhi­bi­tion at the con­fer­ence […]

August 11, 2025

News

Belarus: portraits of arbitrarily detained media professionals

 Today, Belarus is one of the largest pris­ons in the world for inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ists, with 39 cur­rent­ly behind bars.

August 11, 2025

News

Journalist Danil Palianski sentenced to 10 years in prison over “high treason”

The case against free­lance jour­nal­ist Danil Palian­s­ki was heard by the Brest Region­al Court. Accord­ing to the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ), the tri­al began in mid-July 2025 and was held behind closed doors. The ver­dict was deliv­ered on July 25.

August 07, 2025

Accents

“Help yourself — and thousands around you will be saved”: Kayak solidarity rally for jailed Belarusian journalists held near Vilnius

While the sun final­ly broke through weeks of rain over Vil­nius on June 28, a group of Belaru­sians gath­ered on Lithuania’s Merkys Riv­er for an unusu­al but mean­ing­ful event — a sol­i­dar­i­ty kayak ral­ly to sup­port impris­oned jour­nal­ists and polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in Belarus.

June 30, 2025

Accents

“Riding for our people”: Solidarity bike ride for imprisoned journalists held in Vilnius

“Rid­ing for our peo­ple” — a sol­i­dar­i­ty bike ride for impris­oned Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists — took place in Vil­nius on May 14. It was orga­nized to mark the 30th anniver­sary of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ). Among those show­ing their sup­port was the leader of the Belaru­sian pro-democ­ra­cy forces, Svi­at­lana Tsikhanouskaya. Her diplo­mat­ic advi­sor, Dzia­n­is […]

June 16, 2025

“Belarus: A Media Prison in the Center of Europe” – IFJ voices support for imprisoned Belarusian journalists

The Belaru­sian issue was high­light­ed over the past week at two major inter­na­tion­al plat­forms: the EFJ Con­gress in Hun­gary and the IFJ Annu­al Gen­er­al Assem­bly in Cana­da.

June 12, 2025

Belarus: Free Belarusian journalists and media workers NOW!

The Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee of the Inter­na­tion­al Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (IFJ) con­ven­ing in Mon­tre­al on 10 and 11 June 2025, demands the release of all Belaru­sian jailed jour­nal­ists and media work­ers.

June 12, 2025

Urgent Motion. On the need to release all journalists from prison in Belarus

The Gen­er­al Meet­ing of the Euro­pean Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (EFJ), meet­ing in Budapest, Hun­gary, on 2–3 June, 2025, notes that on May 28 a new  wave of per­se­cu­tion tar­get­ed the few remain­ing pri­vate media out­lets still oper­at­ing in Belaru­sian regions. Sev­er­al media out­lets, includ­ing Vech­erny Bobruisk, babruisk.info, Vol­na­je Hly­boka­je (and its web­site vglybokaye.by), and UzHo­rak, […]

June 09, 2025

News

Brest journalist to stand trial for alleged collaboration with “extremist entity”

The Prosecutor’s Office of the Brest Region has announced that it has referred a crim­i­nal case to court against a Brest res­i­dent under Part 3 of Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (par­tic­i­pa­tion in an extrem­ist enti­ty).

June 04, 2025

The time for release is now

We, the under­signed, are con­cerned that, amid the cur­rent glob­al sit­u­a­tion, the plight of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in Belarus may slip out of the pub­lic eye. Mean­while, the cat­a­stroph­ic sit­u­a­tion of approx­i­mate­ly 1,200 polit­i­cal pris­on­ers requires imme­di­ate inter­ven­tion. 

May 21, 2025

Accents

“Quiet and courageous heroes, they hold a special place in my heart”: Politicians and media professionals honor imprisoned journalists

More than 40 jour­nal­ists remain impris­oned in Belarus, but oth­ers can talk for them – their sym­bol­ic god­par­ents, as well as oth­er pub­lic per­sons and media pro­fes­sion­als. On World Press Free­dom Day, May 3, the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists called on sym­bol­ic god­par­ents of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, pub­lic fig­ures, and media pro­fes­sion­als to high­light the sit­u­a­tion […]

May 03, 2025