The EESC believes that the situation in Belarus is a European issue and should be given due attention. The EU and its Member States could help relay and disseminate independent news coverage from Belarus across Europe by making it available in other languages. 

Since the August 2020 presidential election in Belarus, which the opposition and Western democracies saw as rigged, the authoritarian regime of Aleksandr Lukashenko has taken brutal steps to stifle an unprecedented protest movement in the country, launching a mass attack on civil society and news media. Over 35 000 people have been arrested, thousands have been beaten by law enforcement and several protesters have been killed. 

During all this time, journalists, bloggers and writers have covered the protests, documenting police brutality, providing truthful information, looking for working internet connections to upload footage and trying to avoid arrest. It is because of them that the whole world has learned about the unprecedented human rights crisis in Belarus. It is important to recognise the incredible work Belarus journalists have done, the lengths they have gone to, putting their lives on the line and sometimes putting their families at risk just to get the truth out, and to pay tribute to all the brave and peaceful protestors, who have found the most creative ways to voice their opposition.

The EESC stresses that the situation in Belarus is a European issue and should be given due attention. The EU and its Member States could help to convey news from Belarus to a wider audience by linking up with different independent news agencies from Belarus and making their content available in other languages. 

In a recent information report, the EESC sets out crucial steps that could be taken by EU Member States to support independent media in Belarus and potentially in other countries:

• setting a global example of support for media freedom in crisis by delivering assistance and extending emergency shelter and visa waivers to Belarusian journalists seeking refuge from repression;
• establishing European and national funds to support Belarusian free media and journalists – a model that could potentially be extended to other countries living under a dictatorship. This should include emergency aid for repressed and relocated journalists who are in need of legal, financial and psychological support;
• developing a strategy to channel the support in a way that can help make the work of journalists sustainable; 
• looking at ways to integrate Belarusian independent journalists into national media outlets of EU Member States or offering them fellowship opportunities;
• increasing assistance and ensuring flexibility by cutting red tape in obtaining EU financial support;
• looking for alternative ways to provide internet connections from the EU where the state provider cuts access; 
• supporting innovations in information transfers; 
• stopping deliveries of equipment or software that can be used to censor the internet and websites in Belarus and sanctioning the national telecommunications company Beltelecom, which has the monopoly on the carriage of international web traffic and was behind the country's internet shutdowns;
• countering internet surveillance, providing Belarusian journalists with tools to circumvent censorship and increasing their digital literacy. 

The EESC is also of the opinion that the EU should urgently add all judges, prosecutors and police personnel involved in the prosecution of journalists and activists to the sanctions list.

Tatjana Babrauskienė, EESC member