Astrozski Belarus-Ukraine Forum participants express solidarity with imprisoned journalists in Belarus

Par­tic­i­pants of the Belaru­sian-Ukrain­ian Astrozs­ki Forum have expressed sol­i­dar­i­ty with Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists who remain behind bars.

Par­tic­i­pants of the Astrozs­ki Forum express sol­i­dar­i­ty with impris­oned Belaru­sian media work­ers. Lviv, Novem­ber 11, 2025. Pho­to: BAJ

This year, the Belaru­sian-Ukrain­ian Astrozs­ki Forum — ded­i­cat­ed to build­ing a demo­c­ra­t­ic and secure region­al space — is tak­ing place in Lviv and Kyiv from Novem­ber 11 to 15.

Dur­ing a pan­el dis­cus­sion on the state of the media and com­mu­ni­ca­tion chal­lenges, par­tic­i­pants stood hold­ing por­traits of 28 jour­nal­ists cur­rent­ly impris­oned. This is the sec­ond sol­i­dar­i­ty action of its kind: two years ago in Lviv, the Forum also hon­ored Belaru­sian media pro­fes­sion­als who are polit­i­cal pris­on­ers.

The Astrozs­ki Forum is orga­nized by Belaru­sian and Ukrain­ian insti­tu­tions, includ­ing the For­eign Pol­i­cy Coun­cil Ukrain­ian Prism, the Ukrain­ian Catholic Uni­ver­si­ty, the Polit­i­cal Sphere Insti­tute, Free Belarus Cen­ter, Euro­pean Dia­logue, and the Cen­ter for Euro­pean Trans­for­ma­tion, with sup­port from the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion, the Kon­rad Ade­nauer Stiftung, and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES). This year marks the fourth meet­ing of experts, ana­lysts, pol­i­cy­mak­ers, and civ­il soci­ety rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Belarus and Ukraine.

The Sol­i­dar­i­ty Marathon is a cam­paign launched by the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ) in May 2023 to draw atten­tion to the cat­a­stroph­ic state of inde­pen­dent media and free­dom of expres­sion in Belarus. Over the past two years, 52 actions in 38 cities world­wide have been held in sol­i­dar­i­ty with impris­oned Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists.

The cam­paign has been joined by the EFJ, IFJ, IFEX, the Dan­ish Helsin­ki Com­mit­tee, Reporters With­out Bor­ders, Index on Cen­sor­ship, the Aus­tralian Media, Enter­tain­ment and Arts Alliance, the PEN Swe­den, jour­nal­ist unions of Lithua­nia, Swe­den, and Fin­land, as well as rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Glob­al Affairs Cana­da and Jour­nal­ists for Human Rights, along with Belaru­sian dias­po­ras across the globe.

BAJ calls on col­leagues around the world to join the sol­i­dar­i­ty cam­paign! Print por­traits of impris­oned jour­nal­ists, take a pho­to with them in rec­og­niz­able loca­tions in your city (out­side Belarus), and share on social media with the hash­tags #Free­Jour­nal­ists and #BecauseThe­Jour­nal­ist, or send your pho­tos to office@baj.media or intercomm@baj.media.