Briefing, November 27! Banned people: How writers and journalists work in Belarus, where independent work is branded «extremism»

PEN Belarus and the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ) invite inter­na­tion­al part­ners and media rep­re­sen­ta­tives to a brief­ing on the sit­u­a­tion of cul­tur­al and media repres­sion in Belarus.

The brief­ing will fea­ture jour­nal­ists recent­ly released from prison after being con­vict­ed of «extrem­ism», as well as rep­re­sen­ta­tives of PEN Belarus, who will present infor­ma­tion about banned books by Belaru­sian and inter­na­tion­al authors.

Reg­is­tra­tion

PEN Belarus mon­i­tors vio­la­tions of cul­tur­al rights in Belarus. The ban­ning of books is not only an act of cen­sor­ship but also a vio­la­tion of the right to free­dom of expres­sion and access to infor­ma­tion, guar­an­teed by inter­na­tion­al agree­ments. PEN Belarus doc­u­ments every case to ensure that the truth about cul­tur­al repres­sion is pre­served and heard. A new web­site ded­i­cat­ed to banned books in Belarus will be pre­sent­ed dur­ing the brief­ing.

Cur­rent sit­u­a­tion in Belarus:

• 3 offi­cial lists of banned books
• Over 258 books banned for polit­i­cal and ide­o­log­i­cal rea­sons, includ­ing works by for­eign authors
• Over 208 authors black­list­ed
• 5 pub­lish­ing hous­es shut down in the past 5 years
• At least 33 writ­ers and jour­nal­ists impris­oned

BAJ reports a sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tion in the media sec­tor. The offi­cial list of so-called “extrem­ist pub­li­ca­tions and con­tent» includes over 1,800 entries — news reports, fea­tures, human sto­ries, pages and social media accounts of entire edi­to­r­i­al teams, and even indi­vid­ual jour­nal­ists.

How does being labeled «extrem­ist» affect the work of media out­lets? How do jour­nal­ists man­age to remain rel­e­vant to audi­ences inside the coun­try despite ongo­ing repres­sion? These top­ics will be dis­cussed by BAJ rep­re­sen­ta­tives and recent­ly released jour­nal­ists: Larysa Shchyrako­va (served 3.5 years in prison) and  Yauhen Merkis (served 4 years in prison).

The brief­ing will be held on Zoom on Novem­ber 27 at 1:00 p.m. (Cen­tral Euro­pean Time). Lan­guage: Eng­lish

Reg­is­tra­tion is required to attend