Unfinished business in Belarus

Earlier this year, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya decided to run for president in Belarus, a country widely known as “Europe’s last dictatorship,” after her husband, a popular YouTuber who had planned to run himself, was jailed. Alexander Lukashenko, the longtime dictator, allowed Tikhanovskaya to stand, and used her candidacy as an opportunity to crack sexist jokes. But her bid quickly gained momentum, drawing thousands of Belarusians into the streets to demand change. They didn’t get it—an election was held in August, officials declared Lukashenko the winner amid widespread claims of massive fraud, and Tikhanovskaya went into exile in neighboring Lithuania. But Belarusians haven’t given up. Massive protests against Lukashenko’s rule have continued on a weekly basis. The authorities have continued to respond with violence. As I wrote in August, journalists have been swept up in the repression. Officials arrested more than forty reporters between May and July as the protests swelled, and detained others in the days either side of the election—further tightening an already-dire climate for press freedom. On election night, law enforcement in Minsk, the capital, arrested four Russian journalists including Maxim Solopov, of the independent Russian outlet Meduza. (As of my writing, his colleagues had been unable to locate him; it turned out he was being deported to Russia.) The authorities beat Solopov and several other reporters, and shot Nataliya Lyubneuskaya, of Nasha Niva, at... Continue reading at 'Columbia Journalism Review'

[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-12-01 13:25:34 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "Unfinished business in Belarus"


Bringing Synergy Back

The word synergy, in the world of book publishing, feels like a term that died in the ’90s. Back then, almost every publisher housed within a media conglomerate was touting the ways it would use its TV-making or movie-making sister companies to sell books. Fox would boost HarperCollins.... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-02-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


24 Million Secondary Characters: a Q&A with Adam Johnson

The Tip Sheet asked the author of The Orphan Master's Son: A Novel of North Korea what kind of impact the death of “dear leader” Kim Jong-il will have on the nation’s oppressed citizenry. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


United Agents' Canter dies

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 14/03/2011 - 08:52 United Agents co-founder and children's agent Rosemary Canter died on Friday [11th March]. Canter began her publishing career as assistant fiction editor at Penguin Books in 1972, eventually working in children's book... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this