As we’ve become painfully aware recently, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko doesn’t want to deal peacefully with any opposition. Instead there have been many arrests, attacks on journalists, activitists, many cases of human rights violation. The recent news about Protasevich getting arrested immediately spread through the world. This issue is being discussed now by many including students who are contributing to our platform. So we asked some of them to share their thoughts and reflections on what’s been happening lately in Belarus and where this might be going. It’s important that students have a voice in our society and can speak freely about complex issues like this.
I’m Olha Kruhliy, journalist, public activist, studying in KNUCA (Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts)
“I have many friends who are activists, and a lot of them simply can’t live in Belarus, they’re political refugees.”
Do you think that these attacks on free speech and the opposition from the President will make protests slowly fade away, as many are simply scared? Or maybe this could lead to a more powerful civil movement against the autocratic regime?
I’ve been following the news about Belarus for a long time, since summer, 2020. I think that the protests will only grow in their power. A lot of international communities and organizations are supporting the protesters.
When it comes to Roman Protasevich, he co-founded online channel Nexta which broadcast footage of the mass protests via the Telegram messenger. It started out from a very small Telegram channel, and out of it grew such a hugely influential media.
What’s interesting is this latest event has shown us how a lot of media online can have huge power now. And of course the President doesn’t like it. It’s honestly disgusting to me to watch it all, it’s scary, but it also inspires us to come together and fight against injustice. This regime has been around for many years, and of course it’s very hard to get rid of it in one year or so.
I also know that a lot of Belarusian journalists are working in exile. It doesn’t make any sense to me of course that as a journalist of your own country you can’t do your job which is to tell the truth. You have to do it somewhere else. But that’s a reality in the 21-st century, and it needs to be changed.
(Olha has written about protests in Belarus, you can check it out here (in Ukrainian)
I’m Christina Chorba, journalism student at Taurida University. Love writing, reading and learning about history
As a journalism student, how does news like this make you feel? Does it make you scared when you can get arrested just by saying what you believe to be true? As we all know, journalists often risk their own lives by doing reporting and investigations.
When I was just starting to study journalism, I was aware of the dangers of this profession, but it didn’t scare me. What’s happening now is violations of basic human rights such as freedom. And it shows us that it’s become the everyday reality of life in Belarus. But I think it won’t stop activists and journalists from speaking out and telling the truth. It’s the obligation of a good journalist, after all.
Very often, certain events can make me stop and think: if I were one of those journalists, should I really put my own life at stake by speaking the truth? Honestly, I don’t know. But there is one thing I’m certain of: in my future career I’ll always be telling the truth regardless of whoever may follow me.
