Some 500 work for independent media from abroad – journalists’ association

May 3, BPN. Some 500 people work for the Belarusian independent media from abroad because they cannot do so in Belarus, the chairman of the outlawed Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) has said.

“Today, on the World Press Freedom Day, 33 members of the Belarusian independent media are behind bars. This figure has not changed for quite a long time,” Andrej Bastuniec told LRT.

“In some cases, the authorities released one journalist only to jail another. And the sentences are very heavy,” he added.

The NGO leader said that after the 2020 presidential election, journalists can be sentenced to eight or even fifteen years in prison for doing their job. Charges vary from rioting to high treason.

Belarusian journalists work from Georgia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and other countries. Some continue to work in Belarus despite the threat of criminal prosecution for cooperation with what authorities labeled extremist groups, Bastuniec said. The state has already branded 15 newsrooms as extremist.

He cited opinion polls indicating that about 30 percent of Belarusians trust the independent media. It is similar to the level of trust in the state media, “which has incomparably more opportunities to reach out to readers and viewers,” he said.

After the disputed presidential election, the government banned any independent media activity. It has prevented newspapers from publishing, and blocked most of the news websites.