Journalistic activity in Belarus is under complete state control,489 with the situation having deteriorated after 2020.490 Since 2021, virtually all independent Belarusian media have been dismantled,491 and left the country, with the crackdown affecting also those who had switched their focus to non-political content.492 Reporters without Borders (RSF) identified Belarus as the most dangerous country in Europe for journalists until the Russian invasion in Ukraine in February 2022.493
Suppression of independent media, as well as of civil society organisations (CSOs), continued to intensify throughout 2024494 and 2025.495 In the 2025 RSF World Press Freedom Index, Belarus ranked 166th out of 180 countries, one place down from 2024, reflecting ‘massive repression of independent media outlets,’ characterised by censorship, coordinated raids on media offices and homes of media workers, mass arrests, and violence.496
The authorities use anti-extremism legislation as a primary tool to criminalise independent reporting and restrict access to information,497 forcing independent journalists to leave the profession or to leave the country.498 To avoid prosecution, non-state media sources which continue to operate in the county are forced to ‘rigorous censorship.’499
Most independent media outlets and the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) have been declared extremist and banned.500 By the end of 2025, according to BAJ, 42 media projects were designated as extremist formations,501 a designation that criminalises any involvement with such outlets, including for those journalists no longer connected to them at the time of the designation.502 Participation in such media, including subscribing to or working with them, is punishable by up to seven years in prison for aiding extremist activities.503
Sources noted that journalists and media workers face arbitrary arrests,504 detentions,505 raids and searches506 at media outlets and journalists’ homes,507 seizure of devices,508 and occasional attacks.509 As reprisal for their work,510 the authorities punish them through vaguely defined anti-extremism and anti-terrorism laws, often applying the relevant legislation retroactively,511 with courts handing down lengthy sentences512 in closed door trials.513 As of the end of December 2025, 28 media workers were in detention,514 with at least 12 detained on politically motivated charges in 2025.515
In December 2024, the entire editorial staff of the regional publication Inter-press in the city of Baranavichy was arrested, with seven journalists of the outlet charged with ‘aiding extremist activity.’516 In August 2025, four journalists from the related regional news portal BAR24 were convicted under the same charges. In February 2026, two heads of the portal were sentenced to 12 and 14 years in prison on the charges of treason (Article 356 of the Criminal Code).517
In a case of individual prosecution, in July 2025, a journalist was sentenced to 10 years for treason and revealing state secrets.518 In September 2025, a prominent independent journalist was convicted to four years in prison on extremism charges for writing articles and commentaries critical to the government.519 In February 2026, a criminal case on treason charges was sent to court against a journalist who left Belarus in 2021 and returned to the country in January 2026.520
According to BAJ, at least 600 journalists have left Belarus,521 with many continuing to face reprisals even in exile,522 such as searches of their properties and freezing of their bank accounts in Belarus, investigations523 and trials in absentia, inclusion on international wanted lists, and seizure of their property in Belarus.524
Families of independent journalists and media workers, including of those abroad,525 were reportedly subjected to home searches, intimidation526 and threats, with some of them asking rights groups not to publicise their cases out of fear of retaliation by the authorities.527
- 489
Dissidentby and Human Constanta, From streets to screens: digital repression in Belarus (2020-2025), 12 December 2025, url, p. 20
- 490
RSF, Belarus, n.d., url
- 491
Bertelsmann Stiftung, BTI 2026 Country Report – Belarus, 2026, url, p. 12
- 492
AP, An incessant crackdown in Belarus hurls dozens of independent journalists into harsh prisons, 20 April 2025, url
- 493
RSF, Belarus, n.d., url
- 494
AI, Belarus 2024, 28 April 2025, url
- 495
AP, An incessant crackdown in Belarus hurls dozens of independent journalists into harsh prisons, 20 April 2025, url
- 496
RSF, Belarus, n.d., url
- 497
Dissidentby and Human Constanta, From streets to screens: digital repression in Belarus (2020-2025), 12 December 2025, url, p. 21; Bertelsmann Stiftung, BTI 2026 Country Report – Belarus, 2026, url, p. 12
- 498
Bertelsmann Stiftung, BTI 2026 Country Report – Belarus, 2026, url, p. 12
- 499
Bertelsmann Stiftung, BTI 2026 Country Report – Belarus, 2026, url, p. 12
- 500
RSF, Belarus, n.d., url
- 501
BAJ, 12 затрыманняў і 34 ператрусы: якія яшчэ лічбы прынёс 2025 год у медыя? Лічбы года [12 arrests and 34 searches: what other figures did 2025 bring to the media? Figures of the year], 7 January 2026, url
- 502
Dissidentby and Human Constanta, From streets to screens: digital repression in Belarus (2020-2025), 12 December 2025, url, pp. 20-21
- 503
AP, An incessant crackdown in Belarus hurls dozens of independent journalists into harsh prisons, 20 April 2025, url
- 504
RSF, Belarus, n.d., url; UN Human Rights Council, Situation of human rights in Belarus, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 6 February 2026, url, para. 82
- 505
UN Human Rights Council, Situation of human rights in Belarus, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 6 February 2026, url, para. 82; Viasna, Human rights situation in Belarus. February 2026, 3 March 2026, url
- 506
AP, An incessant crackdown in Belarus hurls dozens of independent journalists into harsh prisons, 20 April 2025, url; UN Human Rights Council, Report of Human Rights in Belarus, 22 April 2025, url, para. 59;
- 507
UN Human Rights Council, Report of Human Rights in Belarus, 22 April 2025, url, para. 59
- 508
HRW, Belarus – Events of 2025, 4 February 2026, url
- 509
RSF, Belarus, n.d., url
- 510
HRW, Belarus – Events of 2025, 4 February 2026, url
- 511
UN Human Rights Council, Report of Human Rights in Belarus, 22 April 2025, url, para. 60
- 512
Viasna, Human rights situation in Belarus. February 2026, 3 March 2026, url
- 513
AP, Belarus journalist is convicted of treason and jailed for 10 years as crackdown on dissent continues, 8 August 2025, url
- 514
Viasna, Human rights situation in Belarus. January 2026, 4 February 2026, url; Viasna, Human rights situation in Belarus. February 2026, 3 March 2026, url
- 515
HRW, Belarus – Events of 2025, 4 February 2026, url
- 516
AP, An incessant crackdown in Belarus hurls dozens of independent journalists into harsh prisons, 20 April 2025, url; UN Human Rights Council, Report of Human Rights in Belarus, 22 April 2025, url, para. 59
- 517
Viasna, Human rights situation in Belarus. February 2026, 3 March 2026, url
- 518
AP, Belarus journalist is convicted of treason and jailed for 10 years as crackdown on dissent continues, 8 August 2025, url
- 519
AP, Belarus sentences journalist to 4 years in prison, days after release of over 50 political prisoners, 16 September 2025, url
- 520
BAJ, Journalist Pavel Dabravolski’s case sent to court, 3 February 2026, url
- 521
AP, An incessant crackdown in Belarus hurls dozens of independent journalists into harsh prisons, 20 April 2025, url
- 522
AP, An incessant crackdown in Belarus hurls dozens of independent journalists into harsh prisons, 20 April 2025, url; HRW, Belarus – Events of 2025, 4 February 2026, url; UN Human Rights Council, Situation of human rights in Belarus, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 6 February 2026, url, para. 82
- 523
UN Human Rights Council, Situation of human rights in Belarus, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 6 February 2026, url, para. 83
- 524
AP, An incessant crackdown in Belarus hurls dozens of independent journalists into harsh prisons, 20 April 2025, url
- 525
AP, An incessant crackdown in Belarus hurls dozens of independent journalists into harsh prisons, 20 April 2025, url; UN Human Rights Council, Situation of human rights in Belarus, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 6 February 2026, url, para. 83
- 526
HRW, Belarus – Events of 2025, 4 February 2026, url
- 527
AP, An incessant crackdown in Belarus hurls dozens of independent journalists into harsh prisons, 20 April 2025, url