Until all are free. Info stand for imprisoned journalists opens in Helsinki

On August 8, an infor­ma­tion stand was opened in Helsin­ki fea­tur­ing mail­box­es for let­ters to be sent to Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists who are behind bars. The mount has been installed in the Media Muse­um Merk­ki.

Ingrid Svan­feldt, board mem­ber of Reporters With­out Bor­ders Fin­land, and BAJ deputy chair­man Barys Haret­s­ki next to the stand ded­i­cat­ed to impris­oned Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists at the Media Muse­um Merk­ki. Helsin­ki, August 8, 2024. Pho­to cred­it: BAJ

«The existence of political prisoners is nonsense»

The open­ing cer­e­mo­ny was attend­ed by rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Reporters With­out Bor­ders Fin­land and Swe­den, the Finnish Union of Jour­nal­ists, the Chair­man of the For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee of the Finnish Par­lia­ment, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists, and human rights activist and for­mer polit­i­cal pris­on­er Leanid Sudalen­ka.

«We want to use this ini­tia­tive to draw pub­lic atten­tion to the repres­sions in Belarus, espe­cial­ly those aimed at jour­nal­ists. Hav­ing polit­i­cal pris­on­ers behind bars, let alone mem­bers of the press, is non­sense in Fin­land.

This is why the wall with mail­box­es addressed to dozens of Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists behind bars appeared at the Media Muse­um in the cen­ter of Helsin­ki. It was installed to edu­cate muse­um vis­i­tors about the sit­u­a­tion with media free­dom in Belarus and enable them to send let­ters and post­cards to Belaru­sians behind bars,» said Ingrid Svan­feldt, board mem­ber of Reporters With­out Bor­ders Fin­land.

Ingrid has been coor­di­nat­ing var­i­ous ini­tia­tives in sup­port of her col­leagues in Belarus for sev­er­al years. She has a per­son­al con­nec­tion to the issue, hav­ing pre­vi­ous­ly col­lab­o­rat­ed with Homel-based jour­nal­ists Larysa Shchyrako­va and Yauhen Merkis, who are cur­rent­ly impris­oned.

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Incarcerated journalists as the focus of attention

Barys Haret­s­ki, deputy chair­man of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists, was present at the stand open­ing. In his remarks, the BAJ rep­re­sen­ta­tive dis­cussed the cir­cum­stances under which jour­nal­ists are cur­rent­ly incar­cer­at­ed by the Belaru­sian gov­ern­ment. Accord­ing to BAJ esti­mates, more than 700 instances of deten­tion have been report­ed for jour­nal­ists in Belarus since the onset of the protests four years ago.

BAJ deputy chair­man Barys Haret­s­ki speaks about impris­oned Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists. Helsin­ki, August 8, 2024. Pho­to cred­it: BAJ

«A sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of our col­leagues have been detained and sub­ject­ed to phys­i­cal abuse by law enforce­ment per­son­nel, and we con­tin­ue to observe new instances of repres­sion in 2024, includ­ing search­es of the res­i­dences of jour­nal­ists who have long since depart­ed from Belarus. But our main focus is on the 37 jour­nal­ists who remain in Belaru­sian pris­ons today. They are hostages of the regime. Var­i­ous cir­cles are now dis­cussing hypo­thet­i­cal pris­on­er exchanges or ‘par­dons’ by Lukashen­ka. It’s not until all our col­leagues are released from prison that the BAJ can talk about any suc­cess­ful amnesty,» believes the BAJ spokesman.

In his speech and respons­es to audi­ence queries, Barys pro­vid­ed a com­pre­hen­sive overview of the chal­leng­ing cir­cum­stances faced by jour­nal­ists in deten­tion facil­i­ties, along with insights into the role of inde­pen­dent media, sup­port ini­tia­tives for media pro­fes­sion­als, and avenues for finan­cial con­tri­bu­tions to such pro­grams. Haret­s­ki was joined by Kat­siary­na Vasil­ion­ak, who runs the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists chan­nel on Tik­Tok.

Kat­siary­na Vasil­ion­ak and Barys Haret­s­ki at the Media Muse­um Merk­ki. Helsin­ki, August 8, 2024. Pho­to cred­it: BAJ

A spe­cial­ist in video pro­duc­tion, Kat­siary­na told the Finnish audi­ence how Belaru­sian media man­age to cre­ate suc­cess­ful qual­i­ty prod­ucts for social media that remain rel­e­vant, pop­u­lar, and influ­en­tial for audi­ences in the coun­try.

Personal prison experience and the importance of supporting political prisoners

A well-known human rights activist, for­mer polit­i­cal pris­on­er, and Vias­na HRC rep­re­sen­ta­tive Leanid Sudalen­ka also addressed the audi­ence with his per­son­al sto­ry and the his­to­ry of his human rights work. In his speech, Leanid touched upon his expe­ri­ences in prison and the impor­tance of sup­port­ing peo­ple who are behind bars because of polit­i­cal per­se­cu­tion.

Finnish jour­nal­ist and edi­tor Mat­ti Posio and Leanid Sudalen­ka. Human rights activist Leanid Sudalen­ka (on the right) talks about the need to sup­port Belaru­sian polit­i­cal pris­on­ers. Helsin­ki, August 8, 2024. Pho­to cred­it: BAJ

Mr. Sudalen­ka also ref­er­enced the incar­cer­at­ed head of Vias­na, Belaru­sian Nobel lau­re­ate Ales Biali­ats­ki, who has been impris­oned for over three years.

Kim­mo Kiljunen, Chair­man of the For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee of the Finnish Par­lia­ment, was also present at the open­ing of the Belaru­sian stand. Mr Kiljunen has been engaged with the Belaru­sian issue in Fin­land for a con­sid­er­able peri­od. He there­fore con­sid­ered it a great priv­i­lege to attend the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny.