“Belarus: A Media Prison in the Center of Europe” – IFJ voices support for imprisoned Belarusian journalists

The Belaru­sian issue was high­light­ed over the past week at two major inter­na­tion­al plat­forms: the EFJ Con­gress in Hun­gary and the IFJ Annu­al Gen­er­al Assem­bly in Cana­da.

A pho­to exhi­bi­tion ded­i­cat­ed to impris­oned Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists at the IFJ Annu­al Assem­bly in Cana­da. Pho­to: BAJ

From June 9 to 11, the Inter­na­tion­al Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (IFJ) held its annu­al meet­ing in Mon­tre­al, Cana­da.

As part of the forum, a pho­to exhi­bi­tion titled “Belarus: A Media Prison in the Cen­ter of Europe” opened, along with a sol­i­dar­i­ty action for impris­oned Belaru­sian media pro­fes­sion­als. Accord­ing to the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ), 39 media work­ers are cur­rent­ly behind bars in Belarus.

Pho­to exhi­bi­tion “Belarus: A Media Prison in the Cen­ter of Europe”. Pho­to: BAJ

At the exhibition’s open­ing, IFJ Pres­i­dent Dominique Pradal­ié expressed “full sol­i­dar­i­ty” with the impris­oned Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists and demand­ed their imme­di­ate release.

Also speak­ing at the event were IFJ Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Antho­ny Bel­langer and FNCC Pres­i­dent Annick Charette.

The IFJ Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee adopt­ed a spe­cial res­o­lu­tion call­ing for the release of Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists from prison.

IFJ del­e­gates showed sup­port for impris­oned Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists. Pho­to: BAJ

It is worth adding that the pho­tos of impris­oned jour­nal­ists for the exhi­bi­tion were pro­duced with the sup­port of the Cana­di­an orga­ni­za­tion from Toron­to, Jour­nal­ists for Human Rights, and the exhi­bi­tion itself appeared thanks to the efforts of the Canadian/Quebec orga­ni­za­tion, a mem­ber of the IFJ — FNCC (La Fed­er­a­tion de la com­mu­ni­ca­tion et de la cul­ture) from Mon­tre­al, which this year host­ed the annu­al meet­ing of the IFJ and the orga­ni­za­tion’s exec­u­tive com­mit­tee.

Ahead of the annu­al meet­ing, BAJ Chair­per­son Andrei Bas­tunets gave an inter­view to the IFJ, dis­cussing the cur­rent state of jour­nal­ism in Belarus, the con­di­tions faced by exiled Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists, and BAJ’s efforts to sup­port its col­leagues.

On June 3–4, at the Euro­pean Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (EFJ) Con­gress, the Belaru­sian issue was addressed in four sep­a­rate doc­u­ments. EFJ del­e­gates also held a sol­i­dar­i­ty action and called for the release of impris­oned Belaru­sian media work­ers.

BAJ calls on jour­nal­ists world­wide to sup­port this sol­i­dar­i­ty ini­tia­tive! Print por­traits of impris­oned jour­nal­ists, take pho­tos with them in your cities, and share them on social media with the hash­tags #СвабодуЖурналістам and #BecauseThe­Jour­nal­ist. Please send your pho­tos to office@baj.media or intercomm@baj.media.