Solidarity across Europe. EFJ Congress expresses support for Belarusian journalists behind bars

Par­tic­i­pants of the Euro­pean Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists Con­gress – lead­ers and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of jour­nal­ists’ unions and asso­ci­a­tions from all over the region – took part in an action in sol­i­dar­i­ty with media rep­re­sen­ta­tives in Belaru­sian pris­ons and Ukrain­ian jour­nal­ists in Russ­ian cap­tiv­i­ty.

The marathon in sol­i­dar­i­ty with jour­nal­ists behind bars joined by par­tic­i­pants of the EFJ Con­gress in Pristi­na. Koso­vo, May 24, 2024 Pho­to: BAJ

The action was pro­posed by the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists and sup­port­ed by Con­gress par­tic­i­pants.

Dozens of media lead­ers and rep­re­sen­ta­tives from dif­fer­ent coun­tries stood in sol­i­dar­i­ty hold­ing por­traits of their Belaru­sian and Ukrain­ian col­leagues.

“Their por­traits can be seen all over Europe today. Belaru­sian media work­ers con­tin­ue to be tor­tured in pris­ons, and pre­cious years of their lives are stolen from them. Today we have no way to phys­i­cal­ly get our col­leagues out of prison. But we can­not remain silent about these crimes of the author­i­ties, we can­not but think about our col­leagues and their fate. Today, the whole of Europe stands in sol­i­dar­i­ty with Belarus,” said BAJ deputy chair­man Barys Haret­s­ki, who rep­re­sent­ed BAJ at the EFJ Con­gress in Pristi­na.

He also not­ed that Ukraine is very impor­tant for Belaru­sians.

“Ukrain­ian jour­nal­ists in Russ­ian cap­tiv­i­ty are hostages, as are Belaru­sian media work­ers. Ukrain­ian col­leagues were cap­tured dur­ing the full-scale inva­sion by Russ­ian troops, and many of them have not been con­tact­ed or heard from for a long time. Our hearts are with them and with Ukraine. That’s why we imme­di­ate­ly pro­posed to hold this sol­i­dar­i­ty action togeth­er,” said Haret­s­ki.

There are cur­rent­ly 35 media rep­re­sen­ta­tives in Belaru­sian pris­ons, serv­ing sen­tences rang­ing from two to four­teen years.

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 (out­side Belarus) and post them on social media using the hash­tags #СвабодуЖурналістам and #BecauseThe­Jour­nal­ist. Don’t for­get to send them to baj@baj.by.

#СвабодуЖурналістам

#BecauseThe­Jour­nal­ist