Igor Ilyash: How Lukashenka declared war on Belarusian journalists

Independent media outlets in Belarus have been through a lot during the past 27 years of Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s dictatorship. Newspapers have been closed down and websites blocked, while journalists have faced civil and criminal prosecution, beatings. Several have even been murdered. Yet Lukashenka’s relationship with the country’s media has varied over time. Frosty periods have been followed by short-term thaws, and vice versa.

Before August 2020 – when thousands of people came out in protest at falsified elections and the police violence that followed – 2011 was one of the most difficult periods. That year, amid anti-government protests, there were several criminal investigations of journalists, 167 instances of short-term detention and seven cases of physical violence. By contrast, in 2015 – another election year in Belarus – there were almost nine times fewer short-term detentions and no cases of criminal prosecution or physical violence against journalists.

These kinds of fluctuations are far from accidental. The level of repression wielded against the free press is directly proportional to the level of protest activity in society. In 2015, against the background of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, president Lukashenka had a high approval rating, his opponents could not even dream of mass protests, and so the authorities could afford a short-term thaw. Lukashenka even agreed to give an exclusive interview to three outlets: TUT.by, Euroradio and the US-funded Radio Liberty. This was an important political gesture, one which suggested that Lukashenka did not perceive independent media as a threat….

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/how-lukashenka-declared-war-belarusian-journalists/

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