“We will continue until the repression stops. International Press Institute Launches Twitter Project on Belarus

The arrest of the for­mer edi­tor of a news­pa­per in Smarhon, the dereg­is­tra­tion of the news­pa­per Nar­o­d­naya Volya, and the block­ing of the web­site Press­ball – short mes­sages in Eng­lish about the sit­u­a­tion in Belarus now appear on the IPI Twit­ter account, which has over 52,000 fol­low­ers.

Accord­ing to the Inter­na­tion­al Press Insti­tute, pub­li­ca­tions on Belarus will be pub­lished reg­u­lar­ly – once a week until the repres­sion stops.

“We are mon­i­tor­ing vio­la­tions of jour­nal­ists’ rights in Ukraine and Rus­sia in the midst of war,” Karol Luč­ka of the Inter­na­tion­al Press Insti­tute, which mon­i­tors and pro­tects jour­nal­ists’ rights in East­ern Europe, said in a com­men­tary for BAJ. “At the same time, we are mon­i­tor­ing the sit­u­a­tion in Belarus. This is one of our main areas of activ­i­ty. We decid­ed it would be fair to fill the gap and sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly report on the numer­ous vio­la­tions against media and jour­nal­ists in Belarus.”

He point­ed out that many of the regime’s actions are not pub­li­cized because they are con­sid­ered minor. But when they are com­piled into a week­ly sum­ma­ry, the scale of the repres­sion and its sys­tem­at­ic nature becomes clear.

“We are see­ing a sea­son­al reac­tion from the pub­lic,” said Karol Luč­ka. “Our read­ers are shocked by the repres­sion against mem­bers of the press. Many have begun to for­get about the sit­u­a­tion in Belarus, which is only get­ting worse.”

The Inter­na­tion­al Press Insti­tute was found­ed in 1950 in New York, USA, by media lead­ers from fif­teen coun­tries. From the out­set, its goal was to mod­ern­ize jour­nal­is­tic prac­tices and pro­tect free­dom of expres­sion. IPI mem­bers include pub­lish­ers, edi­tors, own­ers of major media com­pa­nies and promi­nent jour­nal­ists.

Read more:

Tatsiana Pytsko extends the list of media representatives behind bars in Belarus. Now it counts 34 journalists

“We stand in full solidarity with our brave colleagues!” The IFJ keeps torch of solidarity with journalist prisoners burning

“Turkmenization is underway in Belarus.” Experts comment on situation with independent journalism in Belarus based on new BAJ and JFJ report