Journalism forum «Safety in danger: How journalists and media should act» to take place in Vilnius

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ), the Lithuan­ian Jour­nal­ists’ Union, and the Coun­cil of Europe invite col­leagues to a media forum and a sol­i­dar­i­ty event mark­ing World Press Free­dom Day.

On May 2, par­tic­i­pants will once again draw atten­tion to Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists impris­oned for their work and dis­cuss new chal­lenges to jour­nal­ist safe­ty.

The forum «Safe­ty in Dan­ger: How Jour­nal­ists and Media Should Act» will bring togeth­er media rep­re­sen­ta­tives, jour­nal­ist orga­ni­za­tions, diplo­mats, and inter­na­tion­al insti­tu­tions to dis­cuss jour­nal­ist safe­ty, coop­er­a­tion among media com­mu­ni­ties, and issues of ethics and media qual­i­ty.

Those wish­ing to attend or cov­er the event are asked to reg­is­ter using the Reg­is­tra­tion Form by April 30.
Speak­ers will include Coun­cil of Europe expert Andrei Richter, Lithuan­ian Vice Min­is­ter of Cul­ture Vik­tor Denisenko, and Direc­tor of the Lithuan­ian Minor­i­ty Media Asso­ci­a­tion Ernest Alesin, among oth­ers.

Work­ing lan­guages will be Belaru­sian and Eng­lish.

The pre­lim­i­nary forum pro­gram is avail­able, and the orga­niz­ers warm­ly invite col­leagues to par­tic­i­pate in the pan­el dis­cus­sions.

The human rights sit­u­a­tion for media work­ers in Belarus remains the worst in Europe. Since the wide­spread crack­down that began in 2020, more than 500 Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists have been detained, arrest­ed, or per­se­cut­ed. As of today, BAJ reports that 40 jour­nal­ists (https://baj.media/en/aglyady-manitoringi/repressions-against-journalists-in-belarus-2025-list-of-colleagues-in-prison/) are still impris­oned by the Lukashen­ka regime. Despite the repres­sion, most inde­pen­dent Belaru­sian media out­lets con­tin­ue to oper­ate effec­tive­ly for Belaru­sian audi­ences from abroad, par­tic­u­lar­ly from Lithua­nia and Poland.

Each year on May 3, World Press Free­dom Day, BAJ and Lithuan­ian col­leagues draw inter­na­tion­al atten­tion to impris­oned jour­nal­ists and call for their imme­di­ate release.

Due to the fact that the Lukashen­ka regime has labeled BAJ an «extrem­ist for­ma­tion,» the orga­niz­ers will offer an option for par­tic­i­pants to attend the forum anony­mous­ly if need­ed.