No Time Like The Past, Write The Script

Michael Hedges May 24, 2021 - Follow on Twitter

Spring is in the air. Lockdowns are easing. People are planning holiday travel. There are so many possibilities. Book that flight now. In the meantime, watch a movie. And pay no attention to the news.

Reporters can be prevented from attending or reporting on “mass events” in new amendments to public gathering and media laws, signed by Belarus authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko and inscribed in the National Register of Legal Acts, reported Russian news agency TASS (May 24). Online broadcasting of “events held in violation of the established order” is also not allowed. Reporters and publications for which they work can lose accreditation for these violations.

There should be no confusion about Mr. Lukashenko’s motivation. Cleansing all media spaces of criticism and opposition will create peace and quiet. Demonstrations, as if they never happened, will finally disappear. He pines for the return of glorious military parades and triumphant speeches about those five-year plans.

In the last week crackdowns on media outlets and individual media workers in Belarus have only accelerated. Popular news outlet TUT.BY was finally shuttered (May 18) after a series of threats. Security services cleaned out the Minsk offices and took away 14 employees. Artsyom Mayorau, working for the Belarusians And The Market newspaper, reported on the police raid and was immediately arrested. He was sentenced to 15 days in jail, noted RFE/RL (May 21).

Days later security services raided the Minsk studios of Belsat TV, a subsidiary of Polish state broadcaster Telewizja Polska with financial support from several government and NGOs. The studio was not in use at the time but several technical staff were taken to detention. Belsat TV staff has been continuously harassed, mostly over reports about demonstrations. Earlier this year two reporters were sentenced to two-year prison terms for reporting on demonstrations.

Then there was this past Sunday (May 23). Raman Protasevich and companion were returning from Athens, Greece, where they had been attending a conference, bound for Vilnius, Lithuania on a scheduled Ryanair flight. He has been living in Vilnius, where he is chief editor of the Telegram channel Belamova, a Belarusian opposition news channel. Previously he had co-founded Warsaw, Poland based NEXTA, another Telegram channel grew in popularity for curating information, including video, about civil demonstrations protesting the Lukashenko regime.

As the flight traversed Belarusian into Lithuanian airspace the pilot announced he had been ordered to divert to Minsk. An ageing but still vicious MiG29 fighter jet appeared alongside to punctuate the demand, personally ordered by Mr. Lukashenko. On landing, Mr. Protasevich and his companion were removed and arrested. Also exiting the airplane were four persons holding Russian passports. The flight departed for Vilnius six hours later.

Obviously, forcing a civilian aircraft to divert from its flight plan is a serious matter. Belarusian said - and continue to say - it was about a bomb threat. None was found. The purpose was simply to arrest and detain Mr. Pratasevich, without warrant in international airspace. Under international convention an aircraft is considered under the laws of its departing port until landing. Hence, the Ryanair flight was governed by Greek - and European Union - law. Forcing it to land under duress and concocted pretence violates international law.

Perhaps Mr. Lukashenko could not comprehend consequences or simply pays them no mind. Dictators are like that. The European Union and several of its Member States occupied the Monday news cycle with condemnations and not a few suggested repercussions. “Belarusian airspace is unsafe for everyone,” said Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Simonyte. “Together with international partners, we will work for the closure of Belarusian airspace to international flights.” Lithuania has given asylum to several Belarusian opposition activists, including Svetlana Tikhanovskaya who led many of the demonstrations. ”While it sounds like an extraordinary Hollywood plot, it's not," said Amnesty International Eastern Europe and Central Asia director Marie Struthers in a statement (May 24). "The reality of this apparent act of air piracy is chilling."

Civil aviation executives were equally blunt. One by one, starting with regional carriers airBaltic (Latvia/Estonia), LOT (Poland) and Wizzair (Hungary), airlines diverted from Belarus airspace. The UK government told airlines to avoid Belarusian airspace and stripped Belarusian airline Belavia of its operating permit. Typically blunt and highly respected in the aviation industry, Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary referred to “the unlawful action of Belarusian authorities… which was an act of aviation piracy.”

See UPDATE here

• Editors demand international protection for journalists
  "obliged to respond"

See also...

• Hot Topics - Media in Belarus

• Hot Topics - News Media

• Hot Topics - Press/Media Freedom