The Journalists of Belarus
in exile

What will the consequences be when journalists are forced to leave their country and – in the worst case – their profession?

Reporters Without Borders Sweden’s report has been produced in collaboration with the independent journalists’s association Belarusian association of journalists (BAJ). The report describes the situation of the exile journalists, who continue to do their work and make sure that the voices from and about Belarus will not be silenced.

PROLOGUE

While bombs are falling on Ukraine and journalists are shot, kidnapped, tortured and fleeing the brutal repression in neighboring Russia and Belarus continues – which along with Turkey – are two of Europe’s most problematic countries for journalists to work in. 

Reporters Without Borders has been able to mobilize quickly in support of our Ukrainian colleagues. Through donations from members, the public and large donors, we have bought protective equipment, first aid kits and satellite phones, opened a press center in the city of Lviv and established contacts to assist journalists forced to flee.

The support for vulnerable journalists in Belarus and Russia has not nearly been at the same level in a Swedish context. When the first reports of increasing abuse of press freedom and attacks on journalists in Belarus came in the spring of 2020, ahead of the election the same year, few reacted. 

Thanks to our partner organization, Belarus Association of Journalists, Reporters Without Borders was able to be vigilant, disseminate information and condemn the situation in the country. When the so-called election was a fact and the attacks on free and independent media were systematized, we took to the streets.

During the period 2020 to 2021, more than 600 journalists have been arrested and together they have spent more than 10 000 days in prison. In August 2021 Reporters Without Borders and the World Organization Against Torture published a report on how journalists were subjected to torture and violence.

From August 2020 to October 2021, 300 journalists had to leave Belarus. This report, which was initiated before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, is about these journalists and points to several of the challenges now facing those journalists fleeing Ukraine and Russia as well.

Sweden and other EU countries should create structures to be able to receive journalists, not only from Belarus but also from Ukraine and Russia and give them the prerequisites to continue reporting on their home countries even from exile. 

Reporters Without Borders has for this purpose started the fund JX Fund, from which both individual journalists and media houses can apply for funding.

Otherwise, independent journalism in Eastern Europe will be silenced and press freedom will be completely extinguished. 

Erik Halkjaer, president of Reporters Without Borders Sweden.

The following is an attempt to portray the situation for the independent journalists and media representatives who have left Belarus.

The report is based on in-depth interviews with 12 exile journalists from Belarus. One of the journalists is anonymized for security reasons. For the same reason, we have also omitted information about which media some of them work for and where they are based. The report is also based on statistics and a survey from the Belarusian Association of Journalists, which was dissolved by the Belarusian authorities in August 2021. The statistics available are small and limited and it is a challenge that it can not be compared with any other reliable statistics.

According to BAJ, 300 independent journalists and media representatives were forced to leave the country from August 2020 to October 2021. At the same time the number might in fact be even larger since journalists have gone underground or do not have a fixed location. Due to the war in Ukraine several of the journalists who sought refuge there have been forced to flee a second time.

A COUNTRY DIFFICULT TO COVER

Before the election, it was just hard. Time to time we felt this pressure, but working as a journalist was still something you could do. But after the election, it was like a war. When I left home in the morning, I didn’t know if I would see my daughter or my husband again. 

Maria Gritz, reporter at Belsat TV, now in exile in Poland.

On August 9th, 2020, the results of the rigged presidential election in Belarus are announced. The incumbent president Aleksandr Lukashenko wins the election with more than 80 percent of the votes. 

Both before but especially after the election, massive protests erupt and thousands and thousands of people gather in several cities, among others in the capital Minsk. President Lukashenko strikes back. Hard. With water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets.

Public interest is great and media coverage massive, but for many of the independent journalists who report from the demonstrations, the blue press vest, which previously provided a certain amount of protection, will be the opposite instead.

The journalists now become a target for security forces. 

According to statistics from the Belarusian Association of journalists (BAJ) more than 133 serious violations against journalists were recorded between May 8, when the election campaign started, and August 11, 48 hours after the election.

On August 10, 2020, Natallia Lubneuskaja, reporter at the independent Belarusian newspaper Nasha Niva, is present in Minsk to report on the protests.

– Everything was peaceful and people just gathered with placards and banners. We were around ten journalists and most of us wore blue press vests. Suddenly, about twenty men from the security police come running from across the street, says Natallia Lubneuskaja. 

The protesters start running and Natallia sees the crowd being shot at by the security forces. Natallia and her colleagues soon decide that it is too risky to stay.

– When we are leaving, I feel something hitting my leg. I look down and see a wound. My colleagues try to help me to get away and some people who have a car parked nearby take me to a hospital.

Natallia Lubneuskaja soon finds out she has been shot by a rubber bullet. She will remain at the hospital for one month. And the shot was no accident, she says.

– We have a recorded film that shows that the shot was definitely aimed at me. It was pn purpose.

This is one of the targeted attacks on Belarus independent journalists registered by the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ).

Tanya Kapitonova covers the event and takes several photographs. Then she returns home to write her article.

The next day there is a knock on the door.

– There were five men dressed as civilians. They did not say their names or who they were. They just grabbed me and took me to the police station, says Tanya Kapitonova. 

At the police station, Tanya Kapitonova is first put alone in a cold, empty room. Then the interrogators come and pick her up.

– For two, three hours, I was interrogated by three men. They tried to find out if I knew the women at the demonstration and when they understood that I didn’t know them, they started asking for contact information for my editors instead. I didn’t say anything and after three hours they said: Okay, get rid of her. Next day there was a trial on Skype.

A witness who, during the trial, is sitting in the same room as Tanya, claims that he saw her participate in the demonstration and that she wore white clothes and had flowers like the other protesters.

In spite of her denial of having participated in the demonstration, Tanya is sentenced to ten days in prison.

– We were 16 people in a cell intended for two. There were no mattresses, no hygiene products, they did not want to give us the things that our relatives brought with them to us. So for ten days I lived a very ascetic life.

And life in exile is far from easy, according to a survey conducted by the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) between October and November 2021 among members of BAJ forced to a life in exile. A total of 140 people answered the survey. 

Challenges

• Legalization in the country of residence 52.1% 
• Searching for housing 26.4% 
• Finding premises for work 10% 
• Job search 39.3% 
• Finding opportunities for medical care and rehabilitation 37.9% 
• Seeking psychological help 20.7% 
• Search for family relocation opportunities 17.9% 
• Search for a circle of colleagues and like-minded people 35.7% 
• Improvement of the language level in the host country 53.6% 
• Search for educational institutions for children 11.4% 
  
  Source: Belarusian Association of Journalists.

Others are more wary about what they write.

– I publish articles without my name and most journalists who work for independent media do that. So in this way, I feel safe myself. But at the same time we have to think carefully about what we write because two of our colleagues are in jail. If the police can´t take revenge on us, they can take their revenge on our colleagues instead, says Natallia Lubneuskaja, exile journalist in Lithuania.

It happens that the security police pays a visit to the journalists’ family members in Belarus, threatens them and forces them to endure raids. The fear that the family in Belarus could get into trouble can lead to self-censorship, says Anton Trafimovich, who is now in Warsaw, Poland.

– I haven’t thought about this until recently when I heard about a guy who was an anarchist in Belarus and who then left for Poland. Some time ago, his mother was detained in Belarus because she had raised a bad son and that this was her own fault. All of us journalists immediately felt: “Help, we still have our families in Belarus. Should we now start thinking about what we write and say? ”, says Anton Trafimovich.

And going into exile is far from a guarantee of security. That is totally clear, given the present situation. While producing this report the security situation in Europe has changed drastically, due to Putins ongoing invasion of Ukraine. On February 24, 2022, President Vladimir Puti carries out a full-scale invasion of the neighboring country – a country where many Belarusian journalists have sought refuge. We receive regular reports on cities that are shelled with rocket fire, on rising death tolls and on people fleeing their homes. The anxiety and fear among the Belarusian journalists in Ukraine is great. Three of those interviewed for the report have fled to Lithuania and Poland.

– Belarusian journalists share the same high security risk as their Ukrainian colleagues. Some journalists have fled to western Ukraine, others have left the country. It is a very dramatic situation, says a journalist who wishes to remain anonymous.

Since the escalating repression in Belarus in August 2020, security concerns within the Belarusian journalist corps have increased, both among individual journalists and among the independent newsrooms that have survived. 

Above all, the editorial staff invests in educating their journalists in digital security, says exile journalist Aliaksandra Dynko, who first lived in exile in Ukraine but had to flee again.

–  When the Internet was blocked and shutdown for three days in Belarus, everyone learned how to use VPN. But now we need to explain to people how to use other digital tools in order to keep and access information they want and to protect themselves. It was not an obligation of the media before but now I think we have to do this for our audience to keep their trust.

TRAUMA AND GUILT

Many exiled journalists suffer from physical and mental trauma, both as a result of having worked as journalists in Belarus with all that it can entail in terms of abuse, threats and arrests, and as a result of fleeing their homeland.

Many times, journalists have to leave the country in a hurry due to an increased threat, fear of reprisals or because they risk being prosecuted – just because they have done their job.

– The most difficult thing is when journalists have to leave Belarus very quickly. Just leave everything behind, with a small bag, not knowing where to go. These people are the ones who are the most vulnerable now. They burn out. So, the need for psychological help is probably the most important thing for everyone right now. They need help and support, and the support must be continuous, not just something they get from time to time, for the crisis is still going on, says a journalist, who wishes to remain anonymous.

Another aspect of the flight is that many journalists find it difficult to accept that they have been forced into exile, says Anton Trafimovich.

– I think there is a huge psychological issue in relocation because it’s hard to realize that you yourself are a refugee. For instance, I met a friend who is a photojournalist and who came to Warsaw a few months ago. She can hardly work or do anything because the only thing she thinks about is that she wants to return to Belarus. She is really frustrated and doesn‘t like her status as a refugee. As for myself and my wife we had a completely different strategy. We moved to Poland, without setting any deadlines or milestones, and we will just live here until we get a clear signal that it is safe to return, he says.

Others don‘t want to see themselves as exiled but consider the move a temporary one.

– I stayed in a hotel for several months because I didn‘t want to look for an apartment. I kind of refused to start living anywhere else. My home is in Belarus. This is my country. And realizing that you cannot go back, that you cannot see your mom or the forest from your window… It is very painful, says exile journalist Hanna Liubakova, who lives in Vilnius, Lithuania.

JOURNALISM IN EXILE – ANONYMITY, TRUST AND INNOVATION

President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s systematic crackdown on independent journalists  Belarus has created a new, more or less thoroughly digital media landscape and new conditions for independent journalists to report on their homeland – both in Belarus and in exile.

This also affects the journalistic product: more anonymous sources, difficulties in verifying information, self-censorship and less journalistic transparency due to an increased need for source protection, are some of the changes highlighted by the exile journalists. But after all, journalists manage to get around this and find new, innovative solutions to cover their homeland. An evolving media landscape requires new strategies, says exile journalist Zmicier Mickiewicz, who lives in Warsaw, Poland.

– At the moment, the main instrument for democracy is the encrypted app Telegram, which makes it possible not only to disseminate but also to share and obtain information anonymously without leaving a trace. So it’s very easy for people to send data. You can take a picture, send it and Telegram kills all metadata. Even if the police take your phone, it is impossible to find out who sent the picture. That’s how it works.

Many exile journalists continue to work for the Belarusian media and for a Belarusian audience. These are the media that had the opportunity and the finances to move their newsrooms abroad. But the conditions for reporting on Belarus from a distance are different.

The biggest change, of course, is that exile journalists cannot cover what is happening from the ground in Belarus. They therefore work closely with their colleagues who are still in the country and with their readers who send pictures, videos and updates via encrypted apps. In this way, a type of citizen journalism has taken shape in Belarus, says Zmicier Mickiewicz.

– The best journalists are still in the country. Everyone who has a smartphone with a camera in a way can be a journalist, so it is impossible to hide anything.

But delivering information to independent media is far from safe. As a subscriber to a Telegram channel linked to one of the media, branded as extremist by the authorities, you can be sentenced to imprisonment for up to seven years. And the stronger the pressure is from the authorities, the more journalists and the belarusian people have to know about cyber security.

Despite the risks, the audience continues to provide information and support independent media, says Aliaksandra Dynko.

– Some weeks ago, our Telegram channel was hacked by the special forces in Belarus. It was violently hacked because they arrested one of the administrators of the account and it was in control of the special forces for ten minutes. They managed to put out an announcement to the audience saying they know who subscribed to the channel and that they would be punished. When we later gained control of the account, we had lost less than five percent of our audience, she says.

According to Aliaksandra Dynko this proves that the people of Belarus have more confidence in independent media now than ever before.

– It means a lot to me because I understand that despite the risk of repression, arrests and other consequences people continue to subscribe to extremist-branded media. This means that our work means a lot to our audience and that we must continue.

In general, it is not as risky for exiled Belarusians to give interviews to independent media as for those who live in the country, which is why journalists often talk to Belarusian experts, commentators and the opposition abroad, says Anton Trafimovich.

– There is a category of people who are not afraid to give comments. For instance, relatives of political prisoners who are already in the spotlight and who feel that they have nothing to lose. There are also some experts in Belarus who may consider talking as well, but I don´t know. I think it’s only a matter of time before they might be detained.

But the fear of retaliation has consequences. Aliaksandra Dynko describes it as journalism having entered ”an anonymous era”.

– This is, in many ways, an era of anonymity, since people are afraid to communicate with extremist media. Even experts are afraid to talk to us, since Belarusian authorities see those who work with analysis as a particular threat. It is also an anonymous era in the sense that journalists – for various reasons – fear that their families in Belarus will be prosecuted, she says.

As the journalists’ families in many cases remain in Belarus, there is an indirect threat even though the journalist is in safety in another country. This can lead to self-censorship. The journalist may prefer to opt out of subjects that could provoke Belarusian authorities or they could publish articles anonymously rather than risk exposing the family to potential danger. This also affects the journalistic product.

– All criticism can be considered extremism. Even a small chat can be seen as an extremist group. It creates major problems for those journalists who want to make their voices heard and raise certain social or political issues or report on political events, says one journalist, who wishes to remain anonymous.

At this time when exile journalists are dependent on secondary information, fact checking is being put to the test – now more than ever before. And there are those who exploit that vulnerability for their own purposes, says Aliaksandra Dynko.

– There were cases where Belarusian security services, or even other enthusiasts, have produced lots of fake news trying to make independent media reporting on them. We have to put much more effort into finding out if the information we receive is true or not.

This puts higher demands on the editorial staff in the form of time, knowledge and resources. 

– We go through a lot of training on how to increase our fact checking-skills and we use many different tools. We make fact-checks on our videos and photos via metadata trying to understand whether they are true or not. We also check all the news we collect via social media and networks. We need to confirm the information with several other sources. It takes a lot more time but we need to do this in order to maintain the trust we have from our audience, says Aliaksandra Dynko.

Even if the journalists find ways to continue reporting on their home country, there are certain stories and topics that might end up in media-shadow, says Natallia Lubneuskaja.

We have our audience in Belarus who help us with some photos or who can talk to us and to tell what has happened. So it’s a great help for us abroad. Yes. And maybe because of covid, even a year before, we make a lot of interviews online because it wasn’t safe to meet in life. Yes. So now it’s not a problem to make an interview online because people, it’s not something new, it’s OK for them and almost everyone have Telegram or Zoom and maybe it’s the one plus of covid for this situation that we learned how to do the articles without meeting in life. Mm-Hmm. So but the problem, of course, that we can’t write about some themes, some topics, because if we were in the city or in the country we can go to a place or something else and to see if it is the truth of what we heard, or not. Now sometimes it’s difficult, even with the help of audience, so we are to … Well we are not to do some topics because we’re not sure that the news we hold are objective and the truth. Mm-Hmm. [178.1s]

– We have our audience in Belarus who can tell us what is happening and it is a great help for us abroad. Because of covid, we already did a lot of interviews online, since it wasn´t safe to meet irl, so this is not a problem now. Almost everyone has Telegram or Zoom and we have learned how to write articles without meeting face to face. But the problem is that we can´t write about certain topics because we are not there. It is difficult, especially if it is something very local, in a city where we do not have as large an audience. We can’t report on certain topics since we’re not sure what is objective and true, says Natallia Lubneuskaja and continues:

– Now that people are afraid to talk to independent media, we also have fewer stories about people. Not about politics, but about life and things like that. People are afraid that the attention would be bad for them.

Despite this, journalists continue to work to ensure that the voices from within Belarus are not silenced. It is our job to make sure that they have all the prerequisites they need to do their job.

THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION

The situation shows that journalists can and will continue to work. You can imprison us, you can block all our sites. We will create new ones. We will move and continue working. We are like the phoenix, we‘ll be born again.

Hanna Liubakova, exile journalist in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Before the election in August 2020, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists, there were about 4 000 journalists and media representatives in Belarus – a country with a population of just over 9.4 million. This can be compared with Sweden, which in 2019 had just over 10 300 journalists on a population of just over 10.4 million. In addition, 2 000 of these 4 000 belarusian journalists were employed by state-controlled media, 1 300 are independent and members of BAJ. 

The Belarusian independent journalists corps has a major responsibility in providing the people of Belarus with impartial, independent information.

Since the repression escalated in the summer of 2020, at least 300 of these 2 000 independent journalists have left Belarus. They have left their homeland, their colleagues and families due to threats, censorship, arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial prosecutions and violence.

This is a very dangerous development.

Working as an independent journalist in Belarus today is very difficult. There are those who continue to fight for free speech – putting their own and their families’ lives at risk. The harder Lukashenko’s snare is tightened on the local journalist corps, the greater the journalists’ determination to continue doing their jobs seems to become. Against all odds, they are finding ways to guard Belarus and we need to do everything we can to support them.

Belarusian journalists face major challenges, even in exile. Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, after this report was initiated, Aliaksandra Dynko, Maria Gritz and Vadim Zamirovski, have been forced to flee once more. Again, they need to restart. This is partly about dealing with practical tasks such as housing, residence permits and looking for work opportunities. To rebuild their lives again, from scratch. It is also about processing eventual psychological trauma from the escape and physical trauma that might have arisen after assault, torture and detains in Belarus. 

Not all journalists leaving Belarus can continue to work as journalists. Some switch to combining their journalistic activities with other types of assignments. Others are forced to retrain and change careers. This is also a dangerous development.

If Belarusian journalists leave their profession, we will not only lose talented colleagues, we will also lose the opportunity for transparency. Silenced journalists and media put not only everyone’s right to free and independent news coverage out of play, but it also weakens democracy. When the spotlight falls on the one who abuses their power, the pressure increases and we can make demands. When journalists are prevented from doing their job, this becomes very difficult.

That those in power crack down on independent journalism in order to stifle it is unfortunately nothing new. It is an effective strategy to take control and silence both the people, those who are critical against the regime and the opposition. There is little indication that President Alexander Lukashenko’s grip on Belarus will be released. Rather the opposite. Let us therefore do everything we can so that Belarusian journalists can continue to do their job. Only then, will we increase the pressure on the regime, only then can we make demands. 

In Belarus, the struggle for freedom is very visible. It is embodied in the massive protests that swept across the country during the summer of 2020. It is embodied in all the encrypted Telegram messages with information, videos and photos that the Belarusian people send to the reporters of the independent media. It is embodied in the journalists striving to continuously and tirelessly enlighten us about the situation in Belarus, in all ways accessible and from all over the world.  

Article 19 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights reads:

”Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” 

Freedom of expression is a human right. Freedom of opinion is a human right. Also independent, impartial information should be a human right. Therefore, we must ensure that the independent journalists can continue to report on Belarus – both within the country and in exile. We must never allow that Belarusian journalists are silenced.

Siri Hill, board member Reporters Without Borders Sweden.