Dictators Want No Witnesses

Michael Hedges August 31, 2020 - Follow on Twitter

News agencies and organizations have long sent reporters and crews into journalistic hot spots. It has long been accepted that reporters in conflict zones are civilians, not combatants, and as such are afforded certain protections. These distinctions have blurred in recent years; protests and demonstrations characterized as war zones, reporters as adversaries. Authoritarians and their supporters do not like the photographs splashed in international media.

Belarusian authorities moved to strip accreditations of more than a dozen media workers at the end of two weeks of public demonstrations, reported Canadian public broadcaster CBC (August 30). Russian citizens working for the Associated Press (AP) and German public TV network ARD were deported while Belarusian citizens working for BBC Russian, the AP and RFE/RL had their accreditations revoked. Also affected were reporters and photojournalists working for news agencies Reuters and AFP and French international broadcaster Radio France International (RFI).

"I am appalled by these events and consider the actions against our team in Minsk to be absolutely unacceptable,” said German regional public broadcaster WDR program director Jörg Schönenborn in a statement (August 29). “The arrests and the revocations of the accreditation make our team on site virtually incapable of action. This shows again that independent reporting in Belarus is becoming more and more difficult and almost impossible. As a public service broadcaster, however, we will not be intimidated and will do everything in our power to ensure that our journalists can continue to report critically and independently on the events, protests and demonstrations in Belarus the safety of the employees on site has top priority."

Some reporters, about 50, were detained earlier in the week; searched, questioned and released. One was BBC Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg, who on Sunday (August 30) remained on the scene. Others detained work for German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle and pubic TV channel ZDF. Several reporters for Belarusian news portals tut.by and BelaPAN and TV channel Belsat were brought in for questioning. Those who did not hand over cameras and mobile phones to security agents were immediately arrested.

Demonstrations in Belarus have grown since the August 16th election victory, widely criticized as rigged, of long-time president Alexander Lukashenko. Authorities immediately imposed an internet and mobile phone lockdown, which backfired as it impinged government communications. But the crackdown on media outlets began in earnest, first with local outlets, then foreign new agencies. So far, only Russian Federation president Vladimir V. Putin, Chinese president Xi Jinping, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a few others have recognized the dodgy result. It was reported by Reuters (August 30) that president Putin phoned president Lukashenko - it was his birthday - and invited him to Moscow “soon” for a visit. Many in Belarus are hoping for that Yanukovych solution, chanting “go away” during Sunday demonstrations.

Also detained Thursday (August 27) was Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN) photojournalist Paul Hansen. “I had just ordered a coke when they struck,” he told Swedish TV (August 29). “Hundreds of police came with police buses.” He managed to regain control over his mobile phone and called a DN editor, who called the Swedish Foreign Affairs Ministry, who called the Swedish ambassador to Belarus Christina Johannesson, who came right over to the police station. He was told to leave Belarus.

Mr. Hansen is a prize-winning photojournalist, awarded World Press Photo of the Year for 2013. “They are afraid of media,” he said to the BBC (August 30), “of people knowing what’s going on.” Like the other deported reporters and photojournalists, he has been banned from returning to Belarus for five years.

See also...

• Hot Topics - Media in Belarus

• Hot Topics - Media and Election Campaigns

• Hot Topics - Press/Media Freedom