BAJ chair addresses Economic Forum in Karpacz

On Sep­tem­ber 3, the 33rd Eco­nom­ic Forum opened in Karpacz, Poland. Andrei Bas­tunets, chair­man of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists, was among the speak­ers. He talked about the Belaru­sian press and how it gets influ­enced by Russ­ian pro­pa­gan­da.

Andrei Bas­tunets. Pho­to cred­it: BAJ

BAJ Chair­man Andrei Bas­tunets par­tic­i­pat­ed in the pan­el dis­cus­sion «Media and Jour­nal­ists Against Dis­in­for­ma­tion and Cyber Threats Endan­ger­ing Pub­lic Secu­ri­ty.» The issue of mis­in­for­ma­tion, includ­ing out­right lies and manip­u­la­tive mes­sages, has been a grow­ing con­cern in recent years. These prob­lems not only vio­late the right to objec­tive and truth­ful infor­ma­tion but also pose a direct threat to the secu­ri­ty of soci­ety.

Speak­ers from Ger­many, Geor­gia, Moldo­va, and Poland paid spe­cial atten­tion to the influ­ence of Russ­ian pro­pa­gan­da on the media, espe­cial­ly dur­ing elec­tions.

There is no need to look far for exam­ples, as his­to­ry is unfold­ing right before our eyes. In Ger­many, for exam­ple, the far-right won the local elec­tions in Thuringia. In the lead-up to the par­lia­men­tary elec­tions, the inter­nal polit­i­cal sit­u­a­tion in Geor­gia has dete­ri­o­rat­ed. The pro-Russ­ian author­i­ties have enact­ed leg­is­la­tion that effec­tive­ly bans the activ­i­ties of inde­pen­dent media and pub­lic orga­ni­za­tions. Fol­low­ing the change of gov­ern­ment in Poland, the media land­scape is cur­rent­ly unclear.

Eco­nom­ic Forum in Karpacz. Illus­tra­tive pho­to

On Belarus, independent media and journalists behind bars

Andrei Bas­tunets pro­vid­ed an overview of the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion in Belarus, not­ing that the lack of change in the gov­ern­ment over the past 30 years has result­ed in a sig­nif­i­cant­ly chal­leng­ing envi­ron­ment. He explained the state Belaru­sian inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ism found itself in. BAJ leader also dis­cussed the impact of the glob­al human rights cri­sis, which is increas­ing­ly being sub­or­di­nat­ed to nation­al secu­ri­ty inter­ests, in the con­text of nation­al media cov­er­age.

«From my per­spec­tive, there are three key top­ics that are always worth dis­cussing at inter­na­tion­al meet­ings and con­fer­ences. These are Belarus, which has dis­ap­peared from the inter­na­tion­al agen­da due to Rus­si­a’s full-scale aggres­sion against Ukraine, the con­flict in Gaza, and oth­er explo­sive con­flicts; Belaru­sian inde­pen­dent media; as well as our col­leagues and friends – jour­nal­ists behind bars (and Belaru­sian polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in gen­er­al),» the BAJ chair­man empha­sized.

The back­stage of the 33rd Eco­nom­ic Forum in Karpacz. Pho­to cred­it: BAJ

What is the Karpacz Economic Forum

On Sep­tem­ber 3–5, Karpacz, Poland, hosts the 33rd Eco­nom­ic Forum, the largest plat­form in Cen­tral and East­ern Europe for dis­cussing secu­ri­ty, eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment, mod­ern chal­lenges, and cri­sis man­age­ment.

The theme of the Forum is «Time of New Lead­ers: Shap­ing the Future Togeth­er». Approx­i­mate­ly 6,000 peo­ple are invit­ed to par­tic­i­pate in more than 600 events over three days. The Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty Forum, the Health Forum, and the Food Forum are the most impor­tant.

The Forum will be attend­ed by Szy­mon Hołow­n­ia, Mar­shal of the Pol­ish Sejm, Deputy Prime Min­is­ters — Min­is­ter of Dig­i­tal­iza­tion Krzysztof Gawkows­ki and Min­is­ter of Defense Władysław Kosini­ak-Kamysz – and oth­er cur­rent and for­mer Pol­ish lead­ers.