Belarusian media workers gathered in Batumi central square with portraits of imprisoned journalists

To express sup­port for their fel­low jour­nal­ists stay­ing behind bars, Belaru­sian media gath­ered at Europe Square in Batu­mi and raised their por­traits.

BAJ reports that 36 jour­nal­ists and media work­ers are incar­cer­at­ed as of July 27.

At a meet­ing held after the sol­i­dar­i­ty action in the Media Hub cre­at­ed by Belaru­sians, Andrei Bas­tunets, the Chair­man of BAJ, not­ed that the actu­al num­ber of incar­cer­at­ed media work­ers in Belarus is high­er, as some peo­ple chose not to report on their deten­tions.

The meet­ing par­tic­i­pants also dis­cussed the pecu­liar­i­ties and chal­lenges of work­ing and liv­ing in Geor­gia. Sev­er­al obsta­cles were men­tioned. The par­tic­i­pants iden­ti­fied finan­cial insta­bil­i­ty in emi­gra­tion as the pri­ma­ry con­cern. Prices have risen 2–3 times over the last year since the begin­ning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, and salaries in the media indus­try are not high.

The jour­nal­ists observed that find­ing work while liv­ing abroad is prob­lem­at­ic. Job open­ings in Belaru­sian media are scarce, and it is near­ly impos­si­ble to secure a posi­tion in the Geor­gian media.

The Belaru­sian com­mu­ni­ty in Geor­gia is high­ly con­cerned about the reg­u­lar­iza­tion of their stay in the coun­try.

Fol­low­ing the recent inci­dent where Geor­gia denied entry to a Belaru­sian activist, Yauhen Hat­sak, the leader of the Belaru­sian dias­po­ra in Adjaria, with­out pro­vid­ing any expla­na­tion, sev­er­al Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists chose to depart from Geor­gia.

The remain­ing jour­nal­ists com­plain about the chal­lenges in acquir­ing res­i­dence per­mits and cite the almost insur­mount­able bar­ri­ers to gain­ing Geor­gian cit­i­zen­ship. In gen­er­al, Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists remark on the lack of inter­est of the Geor­gian author­i­ties towards Belaru­sians and their assim­i­la­tion into Geor­gian soci­ety.

Aside from that, they high­light­ed chal­lenges with children’s edu­ca­tion, med­ical insur­ance, and obtain­ing an EU visa while resid­ing in Geor­gia. Jour­nal­ists also report­ed prob­lems in replac­ing their Belaru­sian pass­ports while abroad. There were also not enough edu­ca­tion­al cours­es, events, and inte­gra­tion meet­ings.

Andrei Bas­tunets promised to ana­lyze all the raised prob­lems and con­sid­er which ones BAJ could aid in solv­ing. How­ev­er, not all the prob­lems can be solved because they are caused by the polit­i­cal sit­u­a­tion and life in exile. The BAJ chair­man stat­ed that these prob­lems are typ­i­cal for most coun­tries that Belaru­sian media had to relo­cate to.

“We will con­tin­ue to face these issues as long as we are in exile,” Andrei Bas­tunets explained. “We aim to per­suade the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty and donor orga­ni­za­tions to remem­ber Belarus and Belaru­sian media work­ers liv­ing in exile abroad. Reporters in Lithua­nia and Poland are expe­ri­enc­ing com­pa­ra­ble dif­fi­cul­ties. Some prob­lems are eas­i­er to resolve than oth­ers. It is chal­leng­ing to influ­ence gov­ern­ments. How­ev­er, we can col­lab­o­rate with human rights groups, includ­ing those in Geor­gia.”

The marathon of sol­i­dar­i­ty with the jour­nal­ists of Belaru­sian polit­i­cal pris­on­ers was launched on May 3 in Vil­nius by a joint action of the BAJ and the Lithuan­ian Union of Jour­nal­ists.

Nor­way, Fin­land, Den­mark, Ger­many, and oth­er coun­tries have already joined the call.

BAJ calls on jour­nal­ists around the world to sup­port the sol­i­dar­i­ty action! You can print por­traits of impris­oned Belaru­sian media work­ers, take pic­tures with them in out­stand­ing places in your city (not in Belarus) and post them on social media using the hash­tags #СвабодуЖурналістам and #BecauseThe­Jour­nal­ist. Don’t for­get to send them to office@baj.media or intercomm@baj.media.

#СвабодуЖурналістам
#BecauseThe­Jour­nal­ist

Read more:

Online solidarity marathon «We care!» to be held on July 29. Proceeds to support political prisoners and their families

Pride and integrity in prison. Solidarity actions with Pavel Mazheika held in several countries

 

Ihar Karnei taken to custody under criminal case