«We are here to remind the public of Belarusian journalists behind bars, and of all Belarusian political prisoners in general.» Video report from solidarity action

On World Press Free­dom Day, the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists and the Lithuan­ian Union of Jour­nal­ists held a sym­bol­ic action for the release of Belaru­sian polit­i­cal pris­on­ers of the media. The sol­i­dar­i­ty action took place in Luk­iškės Prison in Vil­nius.

The orga­niz­ers of the action held a sym­bol­ic pho­to ses­sion with por­traits of impris­oned jour­nal­ists. The loca­tion was select­ed because it is the place where many promi­nent Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists were impris­oned. Cur­rent­ly, sev­er­al well-known jour­nal­ists are behind bars in Belarus, includ­ing Iry­na Leushy­na, Mary­na Zolata­va, Ihar Losik, Andrei Kuznechyk, Ihar Karnei, Andrzej Poc­zobut, Andrei Ali­ak­san­drau, and oth­ers. Cur­rent­ly, 35 jour­nal­ists are impris­oned in Belarus. Their only offense is that they ful­filled their pro­fes­sion­al oblig­a­tions hon­est­ly.

Chair­man of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists Andrei Bas­tunets stat­ed, «While we have not yet achieved our pri­ma­ry objec­tive — the release of our col­leagues — we can nonethe­less remind the pub­lic of our trag­ic sit­u­a­tion, of Belarus, of Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists behind bars, and all Belaru­sian polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in gen­er­al.»

The joint action of BAJ and LJU con­clud­ed with the sym­bol­ic release of Belaru­sian jour­nal­ist pris­on­ers from Luk­iškės prison.

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. Don’t for­get to send them to intercomm@baj.media.

#World­Press­Free­dom­Day #WPFD2024 #Press­Free­dom #BecauseThe­Jour­nal­ist