News Outlets And Reporters Branded With Nasty Labels, Threatened With Cleansing

Michael Hedges July 26, 2021 - Follow on Twitter

Critical news reporting in far too many places is a trial by fire. Those edging close to that cauldron find themselves chased, searched, beaten and worse. And there is a growing impatience among authoritarian rulers to root out any who might bring truth to power. Despite efforts, best or not, of the great and good guardians of democracy the dictators are relentless.

Belarusian security services have busied themselves in recent days. With several critical news organizations targeted, employees dispersed to jails and holding pens, the attention of ruler Alexander Lukashenko has turned to “cleansing” the country of NGOs, which he called “bandits and foreign agents,” reported the AP (July 22). “Do you think it’s easy? There are thousands of our people working for them, and their brains are distorted and brainwashed with foreign money.”

Last week the Belarusian Justice Ministry’s claim against writer’s organization Belarusian PEN Center was taken up for liquidation by the country’s Supreme Court, reported Belsat TV (July 22). Belarusian PEN Center is chaired by Nobel literature laureate (2015) Svetlana Alexievich, who fled last year to Germany. Belarusian PEN Center is affiliated with PEN International.

In advance of similar liquidation procedures financial assets of Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) were seized. About 40 civil society organizations have been put on notice. Human rights advocate Viasná was closed last week, referred by some as “black week.” Illustrating the tone of the continuing crackdowns, Imena NGO was raided last week and bank accounts frozen. It helps fund hospice care for children with cancer. Founder Katerina Sinyuk, interviewed by The Guardian (July 23), was unable to speak about the investigations because of a non-disclosure agreement.

“Sooner or later the leading Russian independent media will go through the same process,” warned Belsat TV political analyst Igor Ilyash, quoted by VOA Russian (July 24). Sooner has arrived. Leading Russian business and financial publication Vedomosti went off-line last week (July 22), suspected of a DDoS attack, reported Meduza (July 23). The website was again available the next day buy without columns by Ivan Safronov, son of the late Kommersant military correspondent of the same name who died quite suspiciously in 2007 after falling from the top floor of his apartment building. The younger Mr. Safronov was terminated from Vedomosti, which led to the entire editorial staff walking out. He was reinstated but later charged with treason.

The Russian Justice Ministry added online news portal The Insider and five of its reporters to the “foreign agents” list. The Insider is an investigative news publication, associated with corruption investigator Bellingcat. Its investigations, with Bellingcat and other media organizations, have looked into poisonings of Sergei Skripal and Alexei Navalny as well as the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, each time tracking down suspicious characters.

“We’re a Latvian publication that’s registered in Latvia according to Latvian regulations,” said founder/editor Roman Dobrokhotov on Telegram channel MBK Media, quoted by Meduza (July 23). “The outlet has no representative office in Russia, so all these crazy laws don’t apply to The Insider. We’ll keep working as we always have.”

A week earlier (July 15) chief editor of online investigative portal Proekt (Project) Roman Badanin and several reporters were added, noted Reporters sand Frontieres (RSF) (July 21). The publisher, Proekt Media, was declared an “undesirable organization,” the first such designation for a media outlet. The US registered company said it would liquidate to separate from the Russian website. Private New York-based liberal arts school Bard College also received the “undesirable organization” label. Bard was the first US institution of higher learning to offer a degree in human rights. In April it received a US$500 million matching endowment from philanthropist George Soros, long derided by “illiberal” authoritarians.

See also...

• Hot Topics - Media in Belarus

• Hot Topics - Media in the Russian Federation

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