• Actual
  • Law and the media
  • Helpful
  • Work areas and campaigns
  • Reviews and monitoring
  • Reporters Without Borders expressed solidarity with imprisoned Belarusian journalists in 12 countries

    Reporters Without Borders (RSF) joined the solidarity marathon initiated by BAJ on the day of the appeal review in the TUT.BY case. Offices from 12 countries supported the campaign.

    «They all should be released!» the rep­utable jour­nal­ism orga­ni­za­tion wrote on social media about more than 30 Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists in prison.

    Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the orga­ni­za­tion’s head­quar­ters and its offices in mul­ti­ple cities such as Berlin, Brus­sels, Dakar, Gene­va, Lon­don, Rio de Janeiro, Stock­holm, Tunis, Taipei, Vien­na, and Wash­ing­ton D.C., took col­lec­tive pic­tures with por­traits of their Belaru­sian col­leagues to express their sup­port.

    Rebec­ca Vin­cent, Direc­tor of Cam­paigns for Reporters With­out Bor­ders, stat­ed that the media crack­down in Belarus shows no indi­ca­tion of end­ing, almost three years since the vio­lent repres­sion cam­paign was launched against the pub­lic after the 2020 elec­tions.

    “In col­lab­o­ra­tion with our part­ners from the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists, Reporters With­out Bor­ders sup­ports inde­pen­dent media in the coun­try and demands the imme­di­ate release of impris­oned jour­nal­ists,” shared Ms Vin­cent.

    The orga­ni­za­tion had planned its action to coin­cide with the appeal date in the TUT.BY case. In an envi­ron­ment of high ten­sion for the media, Liud­mi­la Chek­ina and Mary­na Zolata­va have been rec­og­nized as sym­bols of press free­dom.

    «The repres­sion of the media that cov­ered the post-elec­tion protests in Belarus con­tin­ues, even though almost three years have passed since their clo­sure,» said BAJ Chair­man Andrei Bas­tunets. «Today, jour­nal­ists are still being impris­oned and sen­tenced to long terms of up to 14–15 years in prison, sim­ply for car­ry­ing out their pro­fes­sion­al duty. Jour­nal­ism, in fact, is not a crime. The crime lies in the repres­sion against jour­nal­ists.»

    The Marathon of Sol­i­dar­i­ty with impris­oned Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists began in Vil­nius on May 3 with a joint effort between the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists and the Union of Jour­nal­ists of Lithua­nia.

    Pre­vi­ous­ly, orga­ni­za­tions and foun­da­tions from Ger­many, Swe­den, Fin­land, Den­mark, and oth­er coun­tries have also par­tic­i­pat­ed in the action. Indi­vid­u­als, such as the US direc­tor Ernie Bar­barash, also took part.

    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

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

    The most important news and materials in our Telegram channel — subscribe!
    @bajmedia
    Most read
    Every day send to your mailbox: actual offers (grants, vacancies, competitions, scholarships), announcements of events (lectures, performances, presentations, press conferences) and good content.

    Subscribe

    * indicates required

    By subscribing to the newsletter, you agree to the Privacy Policy