«The tragic situation in the center of Europe should not be forgotten». The Solidarity Marathon has already covered 23 countries worldwide

The inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty con­tin­ues to demand the release of Belaru­sian col­leagues. The BAJ sum­ma­rizes the inter­im results of the Sol­i­dar­i­ty Marathon, which has been ongo­ing for a year and four months.

The sol­i­dar­i­ty action with impris­oned jour­nal­ists. Luk­iškės Prison, Vil­nius, May 3, 2024. Pho­to: BAJ

What has changed

The sit­u­a­tion has not remained stag­nant. A few months ago, 39 jour­nal­ists were impris­oned. Since July 3, 2024, there have been four waves of par­dons for polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, with a total of 115 indi­vid­u­als released.

At least three impris­oned jour­nal­ists were released by the Belaru­sian regime as part of these par­dons:

• Kseniya  Lut­ski­na, a for­mer jour­nal­ist from “Belarus 2”, suf­fer­ing from can­cer, sen­tenced to 8 years in prison;
• Dzmit­ry Luk­sha, a cor­re­spon­dent for the Kaza­kh chan­nel “Khabar24”, sen­tenced to 4 years in prison;
• Andrei Tolchyn, the founder of the city news­pa­per «Gomel­skie Vedo­mosti», sen­tenced to 2.5 years in prison.

Oth­er jour­nal­ists have also been released, but the rea­sons for their release could not be con­firmed.

How­ev­er, all of them were and are behind bars sole­ly because they hon­est­ly ful­filled their pro­fes­sion­al duty, even in grim times when “some­times there is no time for the law.”

The marathon continues in Europe, Canada, and even Australia

BAJ ini­ti­at­ed the Sol­i­dar­i­ty Marathon to ensure the world does not for­get about impris­oned Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists. In the first half of the year alone, the cam­paign was sup­port­ed by media pro­fes­sion­als, human rights defend­ers, politi­cians, musi­cians, and direc­tors from Lithua­nia, Ger­many, Scan­di­na­vian coun­tries, and Aus­tralia.

On Novem­ber 4, 2023, Belaru­sian lawyers in Prague marked the occa­sion with a pho­to ses­sion fea­tur­ing por­traits of impris­oned jour­nal­ists. A train­ing orga­nized by the Coun­cil of Europe and the CEELI Insti­tute (a non-gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tion that pro­motes the rule of law) was tak­ing place in the Czech Repub­lic at that time.

Just two days lat­er in Lviv, Ukraine, par­tic­i­pants of the Astrozh­skis Belaru­sian-Ukrain­ian Expert Forum con­clud­ed the event with a sol­i­dar­i­ty action for impris­oned media work­ers.

On Novem­ber 9, the embassies of Ire­land, Fin­land and Nor­way in Lithua­nia ini­ti­at­ed a sem­i­nar in sup­port of free­dom for Belaru­sian media work­ers. Impris­oned jour­nal­ists and their fam­i­lies received high-lev­el sup­port: Svi­at­lana Tsikhanouskaya, the Deputy Min­is­ter of For­eign Affairs of Lithua­nia Jonas Survi­la, and the Min­is­ter of Euro­pean Affairs and Defense of Ire­land Peter Burke tra­di­tion­al­ly held the por­traits of impris­oned media rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Jour­nal­ists, human rights defend­ers, and diplo­mats also joined the sol­i­dar­i­ty action.

Svi­at­lana Tsikhanouskaya is hold­ing the por­trait of the impris­oned Andrei Ali­ak­san­drau. Pho­to: BAJ

In the fol­low­ing days, the Sol­i­dar­i­ty Marathon trav­eled across con­ti­nents: first, impris­oned Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists were sup­port­ed by human rights defend­ers in the UK, then sol­i­dar­i­ty actions were held in Bia­lystok, and lat­er in Toron­to, Cana­da.

A year lat­er, the geog­ra­phy and list of par­tic­i­pants sig­nif­i­cant­ly expand­ed

SWEDEN

At the begin­ning of March, the Art Muse­um in Malmö, Swe­den, held the “Echo­ing the Voic­es of Women” action, which men­tioned the polit­i­cal pris­on­ers among Belaru­sian female jour­nal­ists. With the sup­port of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists, Malmö PEN told the sto­ries of nine media women who are cur­rent­ly behind bars and shared quotes from the final state­ment in court by Iry­na Leushy­na, edi­tor-in-chief of the Bela­PAN agency.

The event “Echo­ing the Voic­es of Women” received sig­nif­i­cant cov­er­age in the Malmö press

Mar­gare­ta Fly­gt read a pas­sage from Iry­na Leushyna’s final state­ment in court. A free­lance jour­nal­ist from Swe­den, Åsa Ohls­son, who has worked hard to devel­op con­tacts between Belaru­sian and Swedish reporters, spoke about her polit­i­cal­ly impris­oned col­leagues from Belarus.

SPAIN

On Free­dom Day, Spain joined the Sol­i­dar­i­ty Marathon. On March 25, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Belaru­sian dias­po­ra gath­ered in Barcelona, hold­ing por­traits of jour­nal­ists cur­rent­ly in pris­ons.

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Belaru­sian dias­po­ra in Spain joined the Sol­i­dar­i­ty Marathon on March 25, 2024. Pho­to: from per­son­al archive

— Today, Belaru­sians have been scat­tered around the world. Jour­nal­ists and media rep­re­sen­ta­tives remain active indi­vid­u­als and play a sig­nif­i­cant role in the dias­po­ras of the coun­tries where they have found a new home, — explained Belaru­sians in Spain.

GERMANY

In mid-April, Berlin host­ed a con­gress of the Inter­na­tion­al Free­dom of Expres­sion Exchange (IFEX), which brings togeth­er more than 80 orga­ni­za­tions from 60 coun­tries. Dur­ing the events in Berlin, col­leagues from Africa called for the imme­di­ate release of impris­oned jour­nal­ists in Belarus.

Jour­nal­ists from Africa dur­ing the IFEX glob­al net­work con­gress for free­dom of expres­sion in Berlin. April 2024. Pho­to: BAJ

LITHUANIA

On May 3, World Press Free­dom Day, the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists and the Lithuan­ian Union of Jour­nal­ists held a tra­di­tion­al action for the release of Belaru­sian polit­i­cal pris­on­ers. The sol­i­dar­i­ty action took place in the Luk­iškės Prison in Vil­nius.

The orga­niz­ers of the action held a sym­bol­ic pho­to ses­sion with por­traits of impris­oned jour­nal­ists. Iry­na Leushy­na, Mary­na Zolata­va, Ihar Losik, Andrei Kuznechyk, Ihar Karnei, Andrzej Poc­zobut, Andrei Ali­ak­san­drau and oth­ers — at that moment, 35 jour­nal­ists were behind bars in Belarus.

— The sit­u­a­tion has not improved over the past year: when one jour­nal­ist was released, oth­ers end­ed up in prison. We can­not yet achieve our main goal — the release of our col­leagues. But we can remind every­one about our trag­ic sit­u­a­tion, about Belarus, about Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists in prison, and about all Belaru­sian polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in gen­er­al, — Andrei Bas­tunets, chair­man of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists, said at the meet­ing.

Dainius Radze­vičius, chair­man of the Lithuan­ian Union of Jour­nal­ists, gave a brief his­tor­i­cal overview of the place:

— Pris­ons in our region were built only by the Russ­ian Empire. We have already freed our­selves: the Luk­iškės Prison closed as a cor­rec­tion­al facil­i­ty in 2019. I hope Belarus will soon be freed as well and close its pris­ons.

Sol­i­dar­i­ty action with polit­i­cal pris­on­ers among jour­nal­ists. Luk­iškės prison, Vil­nius, May 3, 2024. Pho­to: BAJ

The par­tic­i­pants of the action orga­nized a sym­bol­ic release of Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists: hold­ing the por­traits of impris­oned Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists, they left Luk­iškės Prison one by one through the entrance gate. They stepped out into free Vil­nius.

KOSOVO

On May 24, the Con­gress of the Euro­pean Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists took place in Pristi­na. Lead­ers and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of jour­nal­is­tic unions and asso­ci­a­tions from the region par­tic­i­pat­ed in an action in sol­i­dar­i­ty with media rep­re­sen­ta­tives impris­oned in Belarus and Ukrain­ian jour­nal­ists in Russ­ian cap­tiv­i­ty.

The Sol­i­dar­i­ty Marathon with jour­nal­ists behind bars was sup­port­ed by par­tic­i­pants of the EFJ Con­gress in Pristi­na. Koso­vo, May 24, 2024. Pho­to: BAJ

— Ukrain­ian jour­nal­ists in Russ­ian cap­tiv­i­ty, like Belaru­sian media pro­fes­sion­als, are hostages. Ukrain­ian col­leagues were cap­tured dur­ing the full-scale inva­sion of Russ­ian troops, and many of them have been out of con­tact for a long time. Our hearts are with them and with Ukraine. There­fore, we imme­di­ate­ly pro­posed to con­duct this sol­i­dar­i­ty action togeth­er, — said Barys Haret­s­ki, BAJ Deputy Chair­man, who rep­re­sent­ed BAJ at the EFJ Con­gress in Pristi­na.

LITHUANIA, Druskininkai

On Sep­tem­ber 14, the BAJ team par­tic­i­pat­ed in an Inter­na­tion­al Jour­nal­ists’ Foot­ball Tour­na­ment in Druskininkai.

Every year, part­ners of BAJ from the Lithuan­ian Union of Jour­nal­ists and the Lithuan­ian Sports Jour­nal­ist Asso­ci­a­tion orga­nize the tour­na­ment. This year, ten teams par­tic­i­pat­ed in the tour­na­ment. The BAJ team ulti­mate­ly took the fifth place, once again remind­ing the world of their impris­oned Belaru­sian col­leagues.

Druskininkai, Sep­tem­ber 14, 2024. Pho­to: BAJ

Andrei Bastunets: “We hope that our joint efforts are not in vain”

The inter­im results of the Sol­i­dar­i­ty Marathon were described by Andrei Bas­tunets, chair­man of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists, as com­pelling:

— Peo­ple in coun­tries where sol­i­dar­i­ty actions have already tak­en place now know about impris­oned Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists, even though they might not have sus­pect­ed before where this coun­try, Belarus, is locat­ed.

Andrei Bas­tunets. Pho­to: BAJ

In Belaru­sian pris­ons, 33 inde­pen­dent media work­ers remain behind bars. This means that the cam­paign for sol­i­dar­i­ty and sup­port con­tin­ues:

— The very name of the cam­paign — Sol­i­dar­i­ty Marathon — indi­cates its long-term nature. We under­stand that it is not easy to achieve suc­cess and secure the quick release of Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists. But it is crit­i­cal­ly impor­tant for us that our impris­oned col­leagues are not for­got­ten, and that Belaru­sian soci­ety and the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty remem­ber that they are in prison for free­dom of expres­sion. We hope that our joint efforts are not in vain, and that rep­re­sen­ta­tives of jour­nal­ists’ unions in oth­er coun­tries will speak with their gov­ern­ments to exert pres­sure on the Belaru­sian author­i­ties for the release of impris­oned jour­nal­ists. There­fore, we will con­tin­ue to remind every­one about the trag­ic sit­u­a­tion in the heart of Europe, — empha­sized Andrei Bas­tunets.

Just the numbers

Since the begin­ning of the Sol­i­dar­i­ty Marathon, 37 actions have tak­en place in 27 cities across 23 coun­tries and on almost all con­ti­nents. The per­se­cu­tion of Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists is now known not only in Europe, Cana­da, and the Unit­ed States, but also in Latin Amer­i­ca, Aus­tralia, and in coun­tries in Africa and Asia.

The Sol­i­dar­i­ty Marathon was joined by: the Euro­pean Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (EFJ), the Inter­na­tion­al Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (IFJ), the Inter­na­tion­al Free­dom of Expres­sion Exchange (IFEX), Reporters With­out Bor­ders, the Dan­ish Helsin­ki Com­mit­tee, Index on Cen­sor­ship, the Aus­tralian Media, Enter­tain­ment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), the Swedish PEN, and jour­nal­ist unions from Lithua­nia, Swe­den, Fin­land, and the Belaru­sian dias­po­ras in var­i­ous coun­tries.