Media Repression in Belarus Still High Years After Contested Elections

The state of media repression is so dire in Belarus that authorities are now targeting people who used to work as journalists, say media analysts.

The remarks come as Belarus this week raided the home of Ihar Karnei, a former reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and took him into custody.

The journalist’s daughter, Polina, told RFE/RL that authorities raided their home in the Belarus capital, Minsk, on Monday and took away phones and computers.

No reason was given for the arrest or raid. Karnei was taken to Akrestina detention facility.

Karnei is the latest journalist to be detained in Belarus. Authorities since 2020 have clamped down on independent media and opposition voices following protests over the contested elections in which President Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory.

More than 1,490 political prisoners have since been detained, according to the latest data from local rights group Viasna. And 36 journalists are currently in custody, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ).

In recent months, several of those journalists have been sentenced to hefty prison sentences, including Andrey Famin. The journalist who worked for regional newspapers was handed a seven-year sentence after being convicted on charges including calling for sanctions and creating an extremist formation, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Some media outlets called extremist

Authorities also blocked access to news websites and labeled some media outlets as extremist organizations, including RFE/RL and Belsat TV, a Polish satellite channel that broadcasts to a Belarusian audience.

Karnei worked at RFE/RL until its accreditation to work inside Belarus was revoked.

The Belarusian Embassy in Washington declined to comment directly on the case of Karnei earlier this week and referred VOA to the press service of the foreign ministry. The ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Barys Haretski, deputy chair of the BAJ, told VOA that the number of journalists jailed in Belarus show the poor state of media freedom.

“In recent years a large number of publications have been forced to leave Belarus simply because it is absolutely impossible to work there,” Haretski said. “Even if you do nothing as a journalist, but have worked as one before, they are likely to come for you. This is exactly what happened to Ihar Karnei.”

Haretski said that the government’s actions put pressure on the journalistic community, especially those who chose to remain in the country.

“Most of our colleagues who remained in the country are physically unable to engage in journalism,” he said.

“We can only guess” what Karnei is accused of, he said. “But it is obvious to us that his arrest is related to his work in past years, and especially during the protests.”

Aliaksei Dzikavitski, deputy director of Belsat TV, said it appears as if Belarus is looking for victims as it seeks to repress critical voices.

“(The) wheel of repression doesn’t stop and (authorities) look for more and more ‘guilty’ people whose only crime is that they were once independent journalists,” Dzikavitski said.

400 journalists in exile

Describing the situation for media inside the country as “terrible,” Dzikavitski noted that more than 400 journalists have gone into exile. The exodus began after independent media, including RFE/RL and Belsat TV, were labeled “extremist” in 2021.

“And those who work for independent media themselves become ‘extremist’ in the eyes of the authorities,” he said.

RFE/RL, like VOA, is an independent news organization that is part of the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

The New York-based CPJ told VOA this week that it is looking into Karnei’s case and that of several other journalists detained recently.

“As is usually the case, the authorities provide very little to no information on these detentions and the charges. Secrecy also surrounds the trials. This is an intentional approach of the authorities who want to keep their repressions against independent voices under a tight lid,” Gulnoza Said, who is CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, told VOA via email.

“Belarus has never been free under Lukashenko’s rule, but it has become one of the most closed-off societies in the world since 2020 and one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists,” she said.

This article originated in VOA’s Russian Service.
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