RSF urges Europe to increase support for Belarus free media

April 10, Pozirk. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called on European nations to increase support for Belarusian free media, which are “threatened despite their resilience.”

“Belarusian exile journalists in Europe face economic challenges that threaten the survival of their media,” the international nonprofit said in a report yesterday. “Having demonstrated exemplary resilience since fleeing Łukašenka’s unrelenting persecution, these reporters and their media now need greater support from their host countries.”

“The oppressive machinery of ‘Europe’s oldest dictatorship’ went into overdrive after the uprising in August 2020, causing a historic exodus by the last dissident voices in Belarus,” it stressed.

“Independent Belarusian media are maintaining a strong audience in Belarus even in exile,” RSF reported, appreciating “the resilience of the 69 Belarusian exile media analysed.”

“These independent media have been able to adapt quickly, turning to investigation and coverage of national rather than regional events,” it said.

It went on to say that Alaksandar Łukašenka’s propaganda media received €50 million in 2023 and are “expected to be further strengthened by the creation of a joint state media company for Russia and Belarus in January 2024.”

According to RSF, the economic sustainability of independent media is more than 90 percent dependent on donor support. More than 75 percent of exile media “are struggling to pay their employees.”

The group also pointed to the increasing repression of independent journalists. “Many journalists were forced to flee abroad, with the largest wave of emigration – mainly to Poland and Lithuania – registered from the summer 2020 to the summer 2021,” it said. “Flight abroad does not, however, guarantee their safety.

“They are often subjected to pressure that is applied to relatives who have stayed behind, or to sanctions on the grounds of their work for independent media that the government lists as ‘extremist.'”

In 2023, Belarus ranked 157^th out of 180 countries on RSF’s World Press Freedom Index.

At least 41 media workers are behind bars in Belarus, according to RSF.

Since December 2023, a number of editorially-independent Belarusian media outlets, including Reform.by, Kyky.org, Belsat TV and Plan B, have acknowledged their financial problems.

On March 14, the Belarusian service of Poland’s Radio Wnet announced the suspension of its work.