How Lukashenka’s regime silences the Belarusian free press

Photo: NickolayV / Shutterstock

Severe repression against the press forced all independent publications to leave the country. If any correspondents still work in the country, they do so secretly. Officially, there is not a single uncensored editorial team operating in Belarus at the moment.

“Despite all the regimes, executioners, and sadists, I must live”

Volha was arrested on her way home from one of the 2020 protest marches. The police pushed her into a van and began to severely beat her while driving to the station. Once they arrived, she started feeling dizzy and nauseous, so they called an ambulance and doctors took her to a hospital. In her room, she was handcuffed to the bed and was kept under guard. However, even in such a condition, the police did not allow her to receive adequate medical care. The next day, she was charged and taken away from the hospital. The journalist was accused of actions that grossly violate public order, hooliganism committed by a group of people and insulting a public official.

“I was sure that sooner or later they would imprison me, they would come for me. Maybe it’s pompous, but I was ready to sacrifice my life. It was unbearable to see this barbarity.”

Volha grew up in a family of political journalists. She attended her first political protest in 1996 when she was only 14. She started her career in 1997 and has collaborated with numerous independent Belarusian and international publications since then.

With such a background and her fearlessness, it was indeed unlikely for her to avoid prison under these circumstances. After Volha was detained, she was moved from one pre-trial detention centre to another. Meanwhile, her relatives were completely unaware of her whereabouts and condition until her trial took place ten days later.

“I didn’t testify during the trial. I waited to take the last word and told people in a courtroom about the tortures I endured. I also said that I would be honoured if they convicted me and ended my speech with the words “Long live Belarus”.”

Volha served her sentence in a women’s penal colony in Homel, a regional centre 300 kilometres away from the capital. Her time in prison brings back the most terrible memories for her. She spent about five months in solitary confinement cells, one of which was filled with water up to her ankles. Because of the cold and damp conditions, Volha began bleeding, but even after that, she was not relocated to a regular cell.

“I thought I might die. It was one of the most terrifying and dramatic moments of my life. I saw images of my childhood flash before my eyes. I was in such pain that I cried. It was distressing to think that I wouldn’t live to see change in Belarus. But later, I felt lighter. Thoughts of my family and the fact that they were waiting for me helped. I remembered my father’s relatives, who had also been repressed during the Great Terror. My great-grandfather spent 20 years in the camps, but he survived. I felt as though he was watching over me from the heavens. I realized that I had no right to let them down. Despite all the regimes, executioners, and sadists, I must live.”

Volha was released in late 2022 after two and a half years. She could not believe they would let her go until the last moment. Even at home, she constantly expected the police to come to her door. And they did. The day after her release, riot police knocked. They tried to persuade her to collaborate with them. After that, Volha decided to leave the country.

“We cannot be silenced, neither my father nor I as journalists. First, this is our job. Second, I see it as my moral duty to speak out,” she says.

Volha is now residing in Switzerland. She is back to her profession, writing extensively about political prisoners and collaborating with Belarusian media publications in exile. She believes that the darkness in Belarus will come to an end and those responsible will be held accountable. In the meantime, she carries out her journalistic duty despite all the obstacles put up by the Lukashenka regime and for the sake of political prisoners who are still serving sentences for speaking the truth.

Working in exile

Harsh repression against journalists forced all independent publications to leave the country, making their work extremely difficult in terms of accessing their audience, conducting investigations and providing reliable information. This is not the only obstacle the Belarusian free press faces today. By expelling the free press from the country, the regime placed independent media in a difficult financial situation.

The Lukashenka government began restricting access to free media in 2020, first by blocking their websites, and later by labelling them as extremists, which criminalizes the consumption of their content. KYKY.org, a lifestyle outlet that became politically engaged during the protests, was one of the first publications targeted by censorship. In August 2020 riot police searched the publication’s office and the director’s home, prompting the entire team to leave the country.

“We realized that to continue working without self-censorship, we needed to leave,” says Alexandra Romanova, KYKY’s director. However, the KYKY team continued actively covering political events in Belarus from abroad. In December 2020 their website was finally blocked.

“By the start of the protests in 2020, we had a large number of readers. The website was profitable thanks to advertising and we were making good money. It was a solid media business,” Romanova continues. “In December 2020 we were blocked, and the website could only be accessed using a VPN. This meant that a significant portion of our audience in Belarus could no longer access our content.”

Two years later, KYKY was labelled as an extremist organization. This new status made the publication not just an unattractive platform for Belarusian advertisers but a dangerous partner for collaboration.

“The model we used in Belarus is almost impossible to recreate now. We are an extremist organization, working with us is a criminal offence for advertisers in Belarus. There are businesses that have left Belarus, but some of them are still hesitant because they have employees or relatives in Belarus. We do not hold any interest for European businesses: we don’t write in their language, so why would they work with a Belarusian audience that we still write for? At the same time, we don’t want to become a media outlet that writes about Poland or Lithuania. We are not ready to forget about Belarus,” Alexandra says.

Lack of money made the outlet reconsider its format. At the beginning of 2024, KYKY decided to stop updating the website and now focuses on publishing news on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok and X/Twitter. They also share longer stories on their Patreon page, which are accessible to those who donate.

Economic woes

Subscriptions are one of the few sources of income for Belarusian media today. However, it is neither the most reliable nor systematic source of funding, and it also poses risks for patrons. Donations may lead to criminal liability, as they are considered as financing so-called extremist groups. Despite this, Belarusians, including those living abroad, continue to support independent media. This solidarity helps these outlets stay afloat. For one media organization, it even became a lifeline. In December 2023 Belarusians donated approximately 17,000 euros to Reformation, another so-called extremist outlet operating outside the country, after its chief editor asked for help on the website.

“At the end of the year, we were unexpectedly denied a substantial grant from a foundation. Our publication could have stopped working within a few months. So, we reached out to our audience to ask for support and raise awareness about the challenges Belarusian media face, as most outlets operating abroad face similar issues,” says Fyodar Pauluchenka, the chief editor of Reformation.

Within two days, around 280 Belarusians sent money to Reformation’s editorial team, with the biggest donation being 10,000 euros. However, for a media outlet with a team of about ten employees, this amount is only sufficient for a couple of months. After that, what comes next? Neither donations nor advertising can fully cover the expenses of media businesses, so they must seek additional sources of funding. Grants are one such option. Yet it is still unpredictable and challenging because the competition for funding from foundations has increased since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the Belarusian press is not the only one seeking support.

“Russian independent media need support because they have relocated and are working with grant funding. International foundations may be tempted to run joint competitions for Belarusian and Russian media, but they should treat us separately. A Russian publication can have huge audiences, while for a Belarusian media outlet, a million-strong audience is already a big achievement,” says Barys Harecki from the Belarusian Association of Journalists.

Competition is growing because Russian liberal media also partly cover Belarusian news. Since Belarusians speak Russian, some foundations might mistakenly believe that the Russian press is enough to meet the demand for honest news among Belarusians.

“It’s important for Europe to support Belarusian media and to not equate them with Russian media. We are not Russia,” Harecki adds.

At the same time, it is incorrect to say that the Belarusian free press is at risk of extinction. However, small and medium-sized media businesses could still fail. Additionally, the focus of the press has shifted to socio-political themes, while other topics such as culture, sport and lifestyle have become secondary. Many outlets also struggle with salaries – they cannot pay on time and the compensation amounts are not attractive.

“Belarusian journalists are very vulnerable. They do not have financial safety nets, and they cannot return to their homeland. This is a significant problem. But we will try to save our project no matter what and keep our employees on board,” says Fyodar Pauluchenka from Reformation.

Since 2020 the Belarusian media field has already lost up to ten independent publications. Some of them did not survive the financial crisis while others were taken over by propaganda or decided to avoid covering politics. The decline in the number of independent media outlets and the difficulty in reaching audiences within the country, where consuming truthful news can result in criminal charges, affects the overall political mood in the country. Some experts believe that Belarusians have become more tolerant of Lukashenka’s regime – not due to trust but rather due to humility. The reliability of such assessments is unclear, as it is currently impossible to conduct independent sociological research in the country. However, the Belarusian Association of Journalists believes that Belarusians still want honest news.

“According to our estimates, the total audience of independent media is around four million people (The population of Belarus is 9.2 million – editor’s note). That means that the independent media sector still reaches at least one-third of Belarusians. The authorities block media outlets, shut down VPNs, and yet media outlets still produce content that reaches Belarus. If not in the form of websites, then through YouTube, TikTok and Instagram channels,” says Barys Harecki. “No matter how hard Lukashenka attacks the public with his propaganda, we remain opposed.”

Darya Grishchuk is a Belarusian journalist based in Kraków, Poland.

belarus, censorship, freedom of press, media