Three Years on From Contested Election, Belarus at New Low for Free Press, Speech

Wednesday marks three years since the contested elections in Belarus that resulted in a widescale crackdown on dissent and opposition voices.

When longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory in a presidential election in which members of the opposition were jailed or threatened, mass protests broke out across the country.

Security forces responded with violence and mass arrests of journalists, protesters and others, with large numbers of opposition voices still being detained or silenced, according to international rights organizations.

“Three years after the start of mass pro-democracy protests in Belarus, there is no end in sight to the horrendous crackdown on free media and journalists in the country,” said International Press Institute deputy director Scott Griffen in a statement. “The Lukashenko regime is determined to silence any independent reporting in the country as part of its effort to cling to power.”

Belarus ranks as the worst jailer of journalists in Europe, with 35 journalists and media workers imprisoned as of August 2022, including some who had contributed to VOA’s sister network Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists.

The media arrests are part of a sweeping number of detentions with nearly 1,500 people currently detained, according to the Belarusian rights group Viasna.

The Belarus Foreign Ministry did not respond to VOA’s email requesting comment.

Following the presidential election, Minsk banned most if not all independent news outlets and branded them “extremist.” Most independent journalists have either fled the country to continue working from exile — or stopped reporting altogether.

The government has even targeted journalists at media outlets that have not taken an overly critical stance against the Lukashenko administration, according to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, or RSF.  

Yulia Davletova, a journalist who had worked for the local TV channel Ranak, surrendered to the police outside her apartment on August 3.

Ranak had never directly contradicted the government, says RSF. But after covering an industrial accident in June, the media outlet was labeled “extremist” and forced to close.

Davletova was forced to record a video repenting for her “errors” before being released from custody later that same day.

In response to the targeting of state and non-critical reporters, RSF’s Jeanne Cavelier said in a statement that as Belarus “continues to step up its censorship, it is now carrying out a purge within its own media of those who fall under the slightest suspicion of a lack of loyalty.”

RSF ranks Belarus as 157 out of 180 on its press freedom index, where 1 shows the best media environment.

On July 1, Lukashenko — in power since 1994 — signed a new law that permits authorities to expel foreign outlets from countries that Minsk deems “unfriendly.” Just days later, Justyna Prus, the Minsk correspondent for Poland’s national press agency PAP, was forced to leave the country.

“If we fail to protect Belarusian writers and artists, including those in exile, we will jeopardize the last brave and independent voices from Belarus and as a result, the battle for freedoms and democracy in the region,” Polina Sadovskaya, free expression group PEN America’s Eurasia and advocacy director, said in a statement.

Media and civil rights groups have called for global solidarity with Belarusian news outlets, with the IPI’s Griffen saying the international community must ensure “the proper support and conditions for journalists in exile, keeping the foundations for journalism in a future democratic Belarus alive.”
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