BAJ: Freedom of expression is the cornerstone of any democratic society. The 9 August anniversary statement

BAJ: Freedom of expression is the cornerstone of any democratic society. The 9 August anniversary statement

9 August 2022 is the sec­ond anniver­sary of the last pres­i­den­tial elec­tion in the Repub­lic of Belarus. Two years ago, instead of rec­og­niz­ing the demo­c­ra­t­ic choice, the author­i­ties over­turned it through the use of vio­lence, as well as the harsh sup­pres­sion of demo­c­ra­t­ic forces and free­dom of expres­sion. And now the regime has jeop­ar­dized the inde­pen­dence of the coun­try itself by sup­port­ing the Kremlin’s war of aggres­sion against Ukraine.

Over the past two years, the Belaru­sian media have faced unprece­dent­ed pres­sure from the State, which has the sole pur­pose of destroy­ing inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ism in Belarus. The tight­en­ing of the legal reg­u­la­tion of media, the recog­ni­tion of many inde­pen­dent media out­lets as «extrem­ist for­ma­tions» and their pub­li­ca­tions as «extrem­ist mate­ri­als,» the restric­tions on free access to inde­pen­dent media web­sites, and the clo­sures of inde­pen­dent media, as well as cre­at­ing obsta­cles to the dis­tri­b­u­tion of print­ed media are only a small part of the large-scale repres­sive pol­i­cy deployed by the author­i­ties. Mass arbi­trary deten­tions of media work­ers (480 cas­es in 2020, 113 cas­es in 2021), often accom­pa­nied by phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal vio­lence, as well as dam­age or seizure of pro­fes­sion­al equip­ment and pros­e­cu­tion in the form of admin­is­tra­tive arrests and fines; also became a toolset in the fight against inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ists. How­ev­er, one of the most egre­gious forms of per­se­cu­tion was the ini­ti­a­tion of polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed crim­i­nal cas­es against indi­vid­ual rep­re­sen­ta­tives of mass media.

Cur­rent­ly, 30 media work­ers are behind bars in Belarus.

Free­dom of expres­sion is the cor­ner­stone of any demo­c­ra­t­ic soci­ety. The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists, the largest demo­c­ra­t­ic asso­ci­a­tion of media rep­re­sen­ta­tives in Belarus, despite the pres­sure from the author­i­ties, car­ried on with its activ­i­ties to pro­tect media free­dom and free­dom of expres­sion in Belarus. We are con­vinced that the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty should not turn a blind eye to the repres­sion of the inde­pen­dent media sec­tor and the fla­grant vio­la­tions of human rights against media rep­re­sen­ta­tives in Belarus.

We call on our inter­na­tion­al col­leagues, jour­nal­is­tic, and human rights orga­ni­za­tions to appeal to the Belaru­sian author­i­ties to stop repress­ing the media and cit­i­zens for express­ing their opin­ions.

We urge you to appeal to your gov­ern­ments to use their polit­i­cal influ­ence on the Belaru­sian author­i­ties to restore free­dom of expres­sion in Belarus, which is not only fun­da­men­tal free­dom but also a cri­te­ri­on for exer­cis­ing all oth­er civ­il and polit­i­cal rights.

We also ask you to express sol­i­dar­i­ty with Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists, blog­gers, and activists who are being per­se­cut­ed for using their right to free­dom of expres­sion.

Free­dom for Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists!

#Free­Me­di­aFor­Be­larus
#BecauseThe­Jour­nal­ist

Repres­sions against jour­nal­ists in Belarus 2022, list of col­leagues in prison

Ways to support independent media on February 9. And every day