EU must provide emergency visas for Russian and Belarusian journalists fleeing repression

Inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ists and media in Rus­sia are cur­rent­ly expe­ri­enc­ing the most severe and wide-rang­ing crack­down in the last thir­ty years. Lead­ing broad­cast­ers have been silenced or shut­tered; dozens of news web­sites have been blocked; use of the word “inva­sion” or “war” have been banned; and a new law crim­i­nal­iz­ing what author­i­ties deem to be “fake” news or infor­ma­tion about the armed forces could see jour­nal­ists jailed for up to 15 years.

More than 150 Russ­ian jour­nal­ists have since fled the coun­try fear­ing for their safe­ty and their lib­er­ty. With the crack­down show­ing no signs of abat­ing, more are like­ly to fol­low. So far, most jour­nal­ists have trav­elled to neigh­bour­ing coun­tries with visa-free entry for Russ­ian cit­i­zens: Turkey, Geor­gia, Azer­bai­jan. Some have been arbi­trar­i­ly turned away, trans­ferred on and, in the case of Dozhd TV’s Mikhail Fish­man, detained. Those that do get in are faced with work­ing in exile in states with repres­sive envi­ron­ments for inde­pen­dent media.

Action is urgent­ly need­ed to ensure Russia’s inde­pen­dent media is not destroyed alto­geth­er. Our organ­i­sa­tions call on all EU Mem­ber States to pro­vide safe havens for dis­si­dent Russ­ian jour­nal­ists to re-estab­lish their bases of oper­a­tions and con­tin­ue report­ing. Exemp­tions must be made by EU states to pro­vide emer­gency visas to jour­nal­ists and their fam­i­lies. In addi­tion to finan­cial sup­port to Ukrain­ian media, EU gov­ern­ments should pro­vide fund­ing to help Russ­ian news­rooms relo­cate to safe­ty.

Visa exemp­tions should also be extend­ed to inde­pen­dent Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists, who over the past year and a half have under­gone a sim­i­lar­ly repres­sive crack­down under Pres­i­dent Alexan­der Lukashenko. Mass arrests and the threat of crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion led to an exo­dus of Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists, includ­ing into neigh­bour­ing Ukraine. While Ukrain­ian jour­nal­ists flee­ing the war cur­rent­ly enjoy visa waivers, their Belaru­sian col­leagues are trapped and are unable to seek safe­ty with­in the EU’s bor­ders.

The Euro­pean Union has already shown remark­able uni­ty in its response to the bloody inva­sion of Ukraine. Though much more needs to be done, the sup­port from Mem­ber States to help relo­cate Ukrain­ian jour­nal­ists flee­ing the blood­shed has been com­mend­able. A sim­i­lar show of Euro­pean uni­ty in help­ing inde­pen­dent Russ­ian and Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists is now need­ed. If allowed to relo­cate inside the demo­c­ra­t­ic legal frame­work of the Euro­pean Union and rebuild their news­rooms in exile, these inde­pen­dent media may stand a chance of sur­vival.

Signed:

• ARTICLE 19

• Euro­pean Cen­tre for Press and Media Free­dom (ECPMF)

• Euro­pean Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (EFJ)

• Free Press Unlim­it­ed (FPU)

• Inter­na­tion­al Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (IFJ)

• Inter­na­tion­al Press Insti­tute (IPI)

• OBC Transeu­ropa