A Statement in Response to Pressure on the Media

Sev­er­al Belaru­sian politi­cians and pub­lic fig­ures have recent­ly made harsh remarks about Belaru­sian inde­pen­dent media and put for­ward pro­pos­als that would effec­tive­ly bring them under con­trol.

There is noth­ing new in this. Belaru­sian inde­pen­dent media have faced accu­sa­tions of bias and attempts at pres­sure for decades. Most often, these come from the Belaru­sian author­i­ties. But politi­cians who osten­si­bly belong to the demo­c­ra­t­ic camp also some­times make sim­i­lar state­ments, claim­ing that “jour­nal­ists are writ­ing the wrong things and in the wrong way.”

This has reached the point of absurd claims about the sup­posed “pump­ing of inde­pen­dent media with mon­ey”, and such asser­tions com­plete­ly dis­tort real­i­ty. Inde­pen­dent media today work under con­di­tions of severe resource scarci­ty; their bud­gets are sim­ply incom­pa­ra­ble to those of pro-gov­ern­ment pro­pa­gan­dists. And yet the reach and influ­ence of inde­pen­dent media in Belarus remain sig­nif­i­cant. This is evi­denced by mil­lions of vis­i­tors on video plat­forms, web­sites, and social net­works.

Calls to deanonymize jour­nal­ists work­ing for inde­pen­dent media, or even to pick­et edi­to­r­i­al offices, sound utter­ly irre­spon­si­ble. All media work­ers face enor­mous risks because of their work, due to the recog­ni­tion of media out­lets as “extrem­ist enti­ties” and crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion for coop­er­at­ing with them. Pres­sure on rel­a­tives, seizure of prop­er­ty, in absen­tia crim­i­nal cas­es and sen­tences, and place­ment on inter­na­tion­al want­ed lists are just some of the forms of transna­tion­al per­se­cu­tion that jour­nal­ists expe­ri­ence. Accord­ing to BAJ data, more than 100 Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists in exile have already been placed on want­ed lists as “crim­i­nals”. Attempts at deanonymiza­tion would only make the work of the Belaru­sian repres­sive appa­ra­tus eas­i­er.

Inde­pen­dent media are not exempt from crit­i­cism, account­abil­i­ty for mis­takes, or demands for qual­i­ty and finan­cial trans­paren­cy. How­ev­er, no crit­i­cism can jus­ti­fy polit­i­cal pres­sure, threats, deanonymiza­tion of jour­nal­ists, dis­cred­it­ing the entire inde­pen­dent media sec­tor, or attempts to sub­or­di­nate it to polit­i­cal con­trol.

The free­dom of expres­sion stan­dard, includ­ing as inter­pret­ed by the Euro­pean Court of Human Rights, is based on the prin­ci­ple that the per­mis­si­ble lim­its of crit­i­cism are broad­er for politi­cians and pub­lic fig­ures than for pri­vate indi­vid­u­als. Under this stan­dard, politi­cians and pub­lic fig­ures may legit­i­mate­ly be sub­ject to crit­i­cism. These indi­vid­u­als vol­un­tar­i­ly enter the pub­lic sphere, their activ­i­ties are a mat­ter of pub­lic inter­est, and soci­ety must be able to dis­cuss them.

At the same time, free­dom of expres­sion pro­tects not only crit­i­cism direct­ed at such indi­vid­u­als, but also a cer­tain degree of harsh­ness, exag­ger­a­tion, provo­ca­tion and even an irri­tat­ing man­ner of pre­sen­ta­tion. Every­one has the right to express dis­sat­is­fac­tion with such pub­li­ca­tions. How­ev­er, threats to use spe­cif­ic forms of pres­sure, includ­ing those affect­ing jour­nal­ists’ safe­ty, con­sti­tute an attempt at cen­sor­ship, which is unac­cept­able.

Belaru­sian inde­pen­dent media strive to adhere to inter­na­tion­al pro­fes­sion­al stan­dards despite threats and per­se­cu­tion. This is pre­cise­ly what allows the Belaru­sian inde­pen­dent media sec­tor to main­tain and strength­en audi­ence trust.

We express our sup­port for Belaru­sian inde­pen­dent media and jour­nal­ists and call on pro-democ­ra­cy politi­cians and activists to respect their work in pro­mot­ing free­dom of opin­ion and expres­sion in Belarus.

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists,

Press Club Belarus,

Free Press for East­ern Europe,

PEN Belarus.