Urgent Motion. On the need to release all journalists from prison in Belarus

The Gen­er­al Meet­ing of the Euro­pean Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (EFJ), meet­ing in Budapest, Hun­gary, on 2–3 June, 2025,

notes that on May 28 a new  wave of per­se­cu­tion tar­get­ed the few remain­ing pri­vate media out­lets still oper­at­ing in Belaru­sian regions. Sev­er­al media out­lets, includ­ing Vech­erny Bobruisk, babruisk.info, Vol­na­je Hly­boka­je (and its web­site vglybokaye.by), and UzHo­rak, were accused of col­lab­o­rat­ing with Ger­many. These raids point to fur­ther arrests of jour­nal­ists work­ing for inde­pen­dent media.

The GM also notes that since 2020, total repres­sion against jour­nal­ists and media has con­tin­ued in Belarus. The work of inde­pen­dent socio-polit­i­cal edi­to­r­i­al offices has become impos­si­ble due to unprece­dent­ed pres­sure from the author­i­ties. Dozens of edi­to­r­i­al offices of inde­pen­dent media were forced to leave Belarus in order to con­tin­ue their work for the Belaru­sian audi­ence from abroad.

The regime of Alexan­der Lukashenko con­tin­ues to restrict access to free infor­ma­tion; more than 2,000 socio-polit­i­cal and media sites have been blocked and banned by the author­i­ties in Belarus; cit­i­zens are sub­ject to repres­sion even for the fact of sub­scrib­ing to inde­pen­dent media on the Inter­net.

In Belarus, the author­i­ties have banned the work of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (a mem­ber of the EFJ), and jour­nal­ists are sub­ject to crim­i­nal lia­bil­i­ty for the fact of par­tic­i­pa­tion in the BAJ.

Accord­ing to BAJ, there are cur­rent­ly 39 media rep­re­sen­ta­tives in prison in Belarus:

Kat­siary­na Andree­va, Ihar Losik, Andrei Ali­ak­san­drau, Dzia­n­is Ivashyn, Andrzej Poc­zobut, Mary­na Zolata­va, Liud­mi­la Chek­ina, Valer­i­ja Kast­si­u­go­va, Dzmit­ryi Navazhy­lau, Iry­na Slau­nika­va, Siarhei Sat­suk, Kanstantsin Zalatykh, Pavel Mazhei­ka, Yauhen Merkis, Dzmit­ry Sem­chanka, Andrei Famin, Larysa Shchyrako­va, Pavel Pad­abed, Viachaslau Laza­rau, Ali­ak­san­dr Mant­se­vich, Ihar Karnei, Ales Sabaleus­ki, Ali­ak­san­dr Ihnat­siuk, Yauhen Hlushk­ou, Ales Marchanka, Vol­ha Radzivon­a­va, Anton Kazel­s­ki, Ale­na Tsi­mashchuk, Dami­il Palian­s­ki, Yauhen Nikalae­vich, Ihar Ilyash, Siarhei Chabot­s­ka, Rus­lan Ravi­a­ka, Aleh Supruniuk, Pali­na Pitke­vich, Work­ers of the Intex-press edi­to­r­i­al office.

In this regard, The EFJ GM demands that Belarus imme­di­ate­ly release all impris­oned jour­nal­ists. The EFJ GM instructs the Steer­ing Com­mit­tee to con­tin­ue to call on all inter­na­tion­al actors to put pres­sure on the Belaru­sian author­i­ties to release pris­on­ers and stop repres­sion, as well as to facil­i­tate the cre­ation of oppor­tu­ni­ties for the con­tin­u­a­tion of inde­pen­dent media for Belaru­sian soci­ety.