Informed 12 International


Te Jailing Journalists’ Club President


Tim Dawson, IFJ deputy general secretary, reports on the realities for journalists under President Lukashenka’s regime in Belarus


NUJ


Te president has no respect for democracy. He denounces the ‘mass media’ and demands that journalists are ‘locked up’. Independent news platforms have struggled to operate against his onslaught. Welcome to Belarus, the European country with more journalists in jail that any other; where more than 30 Belarusian publications are forced to operate from abroad and the journalists’ union has been sanctioned as a ‘terrorist organisation’. Te country’s president, Alexander


Lukashenka, has been in power since his office was created in 1994. In recent years, as his ‘re-elections’ have looked ever more rigged, he has repeatedly issued decrees and signed into law provisions to restrict media freedom. For an authoritative flavour of media life in Minsk, the Council of Europe’s Safety of Journalists Platform is a good starting point (htps://fom.coe. int/en/listejournalistes/detentions). Its authoritative catalogue of media


workers in prison is maintained as a public record to which states are invited


Assange


Following the release of Julian Assange in June, President Joe Biden is being urged to pardon the WikiLeaks founder to ensure a precedent is not set for prosecuting journalists over stories about national security. Two US congressmen have called on Biden to


let him return to his wife and daughter.” Te EU’s foreign affairs spokesman


Peter Stanos condemned the conviction, as did Anthony Blinken, the US secretary of state. During his trial, Losik’s wife chided officials from the judiciary for having “trampled on every piece of legislation, all legal norms, even though


Tim Dawson


to respond. Te 38 reporters it lists as locked up in Belarus exceeds even the 30 in Russian prisons (from a country with a population 15 times greater). Te case of Ihar Losik is typical. A


reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, he is three years into a 15 year prison sentence for ‘organising mass riots’ and ‘inciting social hatred’. At the time of his trial, RFE/RL President Jamie Fly said: “Ihar Losik’s closed-door trial has been an outrageous travesty of justice. We again call on the Lukashenka regime to stop their assault on news organisations and journalists like Ihar and


your job is to protect them.” She has since been imprisoned herself. Losik has twice tried to take his own life and has been on hunger strike. Barys Haretski is vice president of the Belarusian Journalists Association, which currently operates in exile in Lithuania. “Despite the ban, we continue to work, supporting our colleagues,” he says. “We maintain legal support for journalists and the media, educational programs, information and analytical products. It is very important to preserve the Belarusian independent media sector now, as the Belarusian authorities are now very keen to capture the minds of the Belarusian audience with their propaganda.” Haretski encourages journalists


elsewhere in the world to post on social media with pictures of his imprisoned colleagues as part of a ‘solidarity marathon’. (htps://baj.media/en/ nakirunki/solidarity-marathon/). Tere is also a link to make financial contributions to the union. “Keeping up the fight is not easy, but knowing that there are journalists elsewhere in the world who are taking an interest in what is happening in Belarus gives us a real boost,” Haretski said. Repression in Belarus is a real and ongoing tragedy.


pardon Assange in order to protect press freedom. Under the terms of the plea deal that allowed him to return to his native Australia, Assange pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act, leading to concerns that criminalising the disclosure of sensitive information could be used against journalists.


Assange was fighting extradition


to the US where he was accused of leaking military secrets in 2010. He was arrested the same year and sheltered in the Ecuadorian embassy for seven years before spending five years in HMP Belmarsh. Te NUJ condemned the case from the start, for its wide-ranging ramifications for journalists.


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