July 1, 2021, Minsk-Journalist Natallia Kazei was forced to leave Belarus for Germany with her family after she was threatened with a criminal case by her employer organization and state broadcaster ONT. Journalists at the ONT called a strike before the presidential elections following which they were threatened by state officials including new president Alexander Lukashenko. Several journalists have been called in for interrogation since and now face a possible criminal charge for speaking up against the unfair practices at the Belarusian state media.

According to Natallia, every third journalist at the ONT has left the organization due to the censorship that was imposed on the journalists. The eventual strike demanded that the state television broadcast the protests and riots that followed the Belarusian election. Natallia insists that journalists were specifically targeted by riot police for covering those events, and their employer organization tried to shut them down when they tried to speak about it. Currently, those who participated in the strike are under fire by not just the management at ONT but also state authorities. Natallia believes they are trying to find the organizer.

In an interview with a local Belaursian news outlet, Natallia claimed that “All the guys who are summoned, all those who participated in the strike, are sure that this criminal case concerns the strike. They need to find an organizer. So far, everyone is playing the role of a witness. But this is ridiculous. You understand that from the status of a witness it is easy to get into the status of a suspect…

This constant state harassment and targeting have forced Natallia to uproot her and her family’s life in Belarus and seek refuge in Germany. While Natallia sincerely believes that none of her actions was illegal, she can also not underestimate the extent to which the state is willing to go to punish the journalists for speaking up. This is evident from the threat Lukashenko issued to the journalists even before he came to power. According to Natallia, in the Summer Palace, during a meeting with the journalists Lukashenko told them that, "If you leave and get tangled under your feet, you will be crushed." 

The Coalition For Women In Journalism is appalled by the events unfolding with former employees of ONT. CFWIJ has routinely reported on the excesses carried out by the Belarusian state authorities against journalists who are attempting to cover the growing political crisis in the country. However, it is shockingly reprehensible that there is little to no global attention to these serious violations unfolding in the country. The journalists in Belarus are in urgent need of international attention and CFWIJ calls on international pressure groups to amplify the voices that Belarusian authorities are currently working to silence.