Between August 2020 and autumn 2022, there were approximately 550 detentions of journalists in Belarus. Seventy-three media workers have been accused of criminal charges. To this day, more than 30 of them are still in Belarusian prisons. A lot of the prison sentences just for fulfilling the journalistic duty of showing reality and telling the truth are harsh. Journalists like Denis Ivashin (13 years of prison), Katya Andreeva (10 years of prison), and Ksenia Lutskina (12 years of prison) are among those who will stay behind bars.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko's crackdown on free media in 2020-2022 was unprecedented. (It was followed by similar measures in Russia after the invasion in Ukraine.)
Remaining media workers had to flee the country and work from abroad (Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine) to tell people about the reality of dystopic Belarus.
Those who fled cannot return to Belarus. Due to the fact that reporting the truth in a totalitarian system is a crime as serious as terrorism, they are perceived as public enemies No. 1.
