Discussion at Gustav-Stresemann – Institute Bonn, 12.05.2022, German and Russian
In contrast to many of her colleagues, the Belarusian photographer and journalist Kseniya Halubovich decided against exile after the manipulated “re -election” by President Alexander Lukaschenko in the summer of 2020. For more than a year she accompanied the wave of protests in Minsk and reported in a video blog about the protesters and their actions: “Belarus: diary of a revolution” (arte.tv). In June 2021, she was awarded the Franco-German journalist award for this work and for her extraordinary struggle for freedom of the press and democracy in the Multimedia category. Together with this young journalist, with Dr. Wolfgang Ressmann (from the Federal Association of Bürgermedien, BVBM) and with Ulyana Babayed (from the Belarusian information website), we talk about how in Belarus and other authoritarian regimes in Eastern Europe journalists are threatened and hindered at their work, and what influence classic and digital social media have on the formation of opinion of the population. With a view to some brave protest, such as that of the editor Marina Owsjannikowa on Russian state television, we also want to know the conditions under which freelance journalists opposite state disinformation campaigns and propaganda can continue their work and how we support independent rapporteurs from Eastern Europe in West can without endangering them.
With: -Skseniya Halubovich, freelance journalist and photographer in Minsk, award winner of the Franco-German Journalist Prize 2021 for her program “Belarus: Diary of a Revolution”.
-Dr. Wolfgang Ressmann, Chairman of the Federal Association of Bürgermedien (BVBM) and initiator of the Media Project Dialogue with Eastern Europe, full-time management OK-TV Ludwigshafen
-Ulyana Babayed, journalist and editor of Tut.by
Moderation: Katsianna Kryzhanouskaya, editor at the German Welle, Bonn
Greeting by: Daniel Weber, head of the political education department in GSI e.v.
Together with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in the Federal City of Bonn, the “Media Dialogue-Eastern Partnership”, the Franco-German journalist award, the International Democracy Prize Bonn and the Institut Français Bonn
