BAJ wins National Prize of Ukraine for Protection of Freedom of Speech

The deci­sion to award the Nation­al Prize for the Pro­tec­tion of Free­dom of Speech named after Ihor Lubchenko, a long-time chair­man of the Nation­al Union of Jour­nal­ists, to the lead­ing Belaru­sian jour­nal­is­tic orga­ni­za­tion that has been repressed at home is a show of sol­i­dar­i­ty and sup­port from Ukrain­ian col­leagues. This was not­ed by the chair­man of the Nation­al Union of Jour­nal­ists of Belarus Sergey Tomilenko.

“Over the past year, inde­pen­dent Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists have been under severe pres­sure from the author­i­ties, hun­dreds of col­leagues have been beat­en and repressed, and dozens have been sent to prison. The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists acts in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the repressed col­leagues, so the Lukashen­ka regime has per­se­cut­ed the BAJ lead­er­ship and deprived the orga­ni­za­tion of reg­is­tra­tion. Col­leagues from Belarus are an exam­ple for all Ukrain­ian jour­nal­ists of fight­ing for their rights, being true to the val­ues of free­dom of speech and our pro­fes­sion,” the head of the Nation­al Union of Jour­nal­ists stressed in his speech.

Now the BAJ under the lead­er­ship of Andrei Bas­tunets con­tin­ues its activ­i­ties in exile — in Ukraine, Lithua­nia and Poland. Hun­dreds of Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists and their fam­i­lies have left the coun­try.

In Kyiv the BAJ is coor­di­nat­ed by BAJ Deputy Chair­man Barys Haret­s­ki.