Aleksandra Bogdani
Balkan Investigative Reporting Network
Barbara Fabro
Central European Initiative
Milorad Ivanovic
editor-in-chief Newsweek Serbia
Sasa Lekovic
founder Investigative Journalism Center
Cristian Niculescu
Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism
Oliver Vujovic
secretary-general SEEMO
Journalists in South East and Central Europe are often filling an institutional gap and doing investigations in cases of corruption instead of state authorities, including investigation of corruption inside the police. Instead of state authorities, journalist examine business practices of oligarchs, find people on wanted lists, investigate questionable deals involving family members of politicians in power, compare the reported salaries with the extravagant lifestyles of managers working in public companies, investigating financial and other irregularities in the churches. Journalists are working on these issues closely with civil society organisations, national authorities and financial institutions, and also international anti-corruption groups. Journalists do it in difficult conditions, and sometimes at great personal risk. Good investigative journalists may expose criminality and help bring criminals to justice, but they are not officers of the law.
Radka Betcheva
European Broadcasting Union
Claudio Cappon
vice president 2009-14 EBU
Eva Ciuk
RAI Regional News Friuli Venezia Giulia
Mentor Shala
director RTV Kosovo
Oliver Vujovic
secretary-general SEEMO
SEEMO panel in Perugia 2015: Public radio and television broadcasting stations in East and South-East Europe are creating an independent news system. Some countries have already started reforms and laws of reorganization of the public service, some of which are very advanced. The goal is often difficult to achieve, particularly for countries during transition, where freedom of the media has been a concern to many international organizations that are fighting for freedom of expression and information for years. We will reflect on the role and especially on the future of public service broadcasting which is extremely important at a time when even RAI, Italy’s national public broadcasting company, is working on one of the biggest reforms of the news system in its history. With Radka Betcheva (European Broadcasting Union), Claudio Cappon (vice president 2009-14 EBU), Eva Ciuk (RAI Regional News Friuli Venezia Giulia), Mentor Shala (director RTV Kosovo), Oliver Vujovic (secretary-general SEEMO),
Tamas Bodoky
editor and director Atlatszo.hu
Eva Ciuk
RAI Regional News Friuli Venezia Giulia
Marko Rakar
president Windmill
Oliver Vujovic
secretary-general SEEMO
SEEMO panel during the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy. For years, media freedom in Eastern Europe has been a cause for concern for many international organizations which have fought for the freedom of expression and information. The cases of attacks on journalists in Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria are emblematic, while the Balkan countries are a special case as they experienced a transition period from a post-war to a European context. However, the efforts of the younger generation to find their own independent voice – often made possible by the widespread use of new media – offer encouraging signs for the future. Organised in association with Associazione Giornalisti Scuola di Perugia and EstOvest.
Vienna, 24 Mai 2021
The Vienna South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) is alarmed by continuing deterioration of press freedom in Belarus.
Detainment of Roman (Raman) Protasevich (Раман Дзмітрыевіч Пратасевіч), 26, following the forced diversion of a Ryanair aircraft on a scheduled flight from Athens to Vilnius (flight FR4978) is against all laws and international standards. He was arrested at the Minsk National Airport on 23 May 2021 after the Belarusian authorities removed him from a Ryanair flight that was forced to land in Belarus. Protasevich is a journalist and co-founder of the Nexta channel on Telegram (messaging app for smartphones). Nexta and Nexta Live now have nearly two million subscribers and posts included crowd-sourced photos and videos of police brutality in Belarus. The Nexta team is based in Poland. Protasevich works since March 2021 as editor for Belamova, a different Telegram channel.
His girlfriend Sofia Sapega, 23, was also arrested after the plane landed in Minsk. She is a Russian citizen and a law student in Lithuania.
It is a clear “state sponsored” plane hijacking. SEEMO demands the immediate release of Roman Protasevich and other journalists detained in Belarus.
Belarus has been tightly-controlled by Alexander Lukashenko since 1994
On 18 May 2021 Belarusian officials announced the launch of a criminal case against the leadership of Tut.by, Belarus’s most prominent independent media outlet. Financial police searched the homes and offices of the publication’s journalists and at least 11 Tut.by employees were detained. The authorities also blocked Tut.by’s website. Security forces came also to the offices of online media Hoster.by and av.by.
According to Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) Alexander Burakou, who collaborates with Deutsche Welle, received 20 days of administrative arrest for alleged “repeated participation in an unauthorized event within a year”. Burakou was detained on 12 May 2021 near Mahiliou regional court building. Uladzimir Laptsevich, reporter of 6tv.by received a similar sentence — 20 days of arrest.
Tut.by journalist Lyubov Kasperovich was given 15 days in police custody for attending a mass event.
Journalist Tatyana Kapitonova was accused of taking part in an unsanctioned rally and jailed for 10 days.
Over 100 people, including five journalists, were detained in late March 2021. One of them was Yazep Palubiatka a journalist working for the Belarusian newspaper Hazeta Slonimskaya, who was summoned by the police on 22 March 2021.
On 18 February Belsat TV journalist Katsyaryna Andreyeva (Kaciaryna Andreeva ) and camerawoman Darya Chultsova (Daria Chultsova ) were sentenced to two years in prison for reporting on the ongoing anti-government protests.
Journalist Katerina Borisevich was arrested in November 2020 and on 2 March 2021 a Minsk court sentenced Borisevich to six months in prison and 1,150 USD in fines. She was released from custody on 19 May 2021, taking into account time already served.
According to the Belarusian Association of Journalist (https://baj.by/) In 2020, 480 detentions of journalists were recorded in Belarus.
In 2020, there were 97 cases of journalists serving administrative arrests in Belarus.
In 2020, journalists spent more than 1,200 days behind bars in Belarus.
In 2020, after Election Day on 9 August, at least 62 cases of physical violence against journalists were recorded in Belarus.
The list includes incidents which the Belarusian Association of Journalists regards as violations of journalists’ rights, committed by representatives of the authorities.
