In a single day, Daria Tchultsova’s life changed forever. Little did this young Belarusian journalist expect that she would spend two years in prison for doing her job. “I couldn’t count the experience even in 400 pages. It was not easy, but she toughened me up, â€she says in statements to La Vanguardia from Warsaw, where she has lived in exile since she was released.
On the day she was arrested, Daria and her partner, fellow journalist Katerina Bakhvalova, were covering a rally in Minsk in memory of opposition figure Roman Bondarenko, beaten to death by supporters of the Alexander Lukashenko regime three days earlier. It was November 15, 2020, and the protests over the alleged electoral fraud had broken out three months ago. Thousands of citizens had taken to the streets to demand the end of the repression and the resignation of the Belarusian leader.
They were broadcasting the protests live from an apartment in the so-called Change Square in Minsk when a group of policemen burst into the building and arrested them. “In those moments you have many thoughts at the same time,” says Daria, who was only 23 when she was arrested. “You think if they will hit you, where they will take you, how many days they will sentence you to and what will happen to all the work material, but above all you have in mind the relatives who will worry again,†she recalls.
After boarding the police vans, Tchultsova and Bakhvalova did not see each other again until the day of their trial, when they were sentenced to two years in a penal colony for “organizing actions that violate public order”. Bakhvalova, who is still in prison, received an additional 8-year sentence for “state treason”.
Daria does not give details of the time she has spent behind bars, however, far from sinking her, it has given her more strength. “It has been a strange experience, but I can channel it to do something useful,†she says, convinced that her contribution to the opposition struggle is to do her job. She continues to report on the Belarusian channel Belsat TV, now from the international program “It’s like thatâ€. In fact, at the time of the interview, she had just returned from Ukraine to cover the restoration of damaged infrastructure. She does not miss the irony of feeling safer in a country at war than in Belarus where, theoretically, there is a democratic regime.
“I will return to Belarus when the president is legitimate,” he says. “If not, I could end up behind bars again. It’s not safe to go back now.” Daria’s fear is more than justified with the reprisals against journalists that the Lukashenko regime has taken in recent years. Although on Monday we heard the news of the pardon of the young journalist Roman Protasevitx -who was arrested after diverting a Ryanair flight in Minsk-, his ex-partner, the Russian blogger Sofia Sapega who was also on the plane that was diverted, is still in jail. serving the 6-year sentence imposed on him by the Minsk court. Similarly, two other journalists from the opposition media outlet Nexa were sentenced to 8 and 20 years in early May.
Belarus has the sad privilege of occupying fifth place in the ranking of countries with the most imprisoned journalists. According to figures from Reporters Without Borders, there are currently 37 captive journalists, 10 of whom are women. In addition, the Belarusian Association of Journalists claims that 400 journalists in the country have been forced to flee, and most of those who remain work clandestinely. They are often arrested, searched, sometimes assaulted and mistreated in jail by Belarusian forces.
“The difficulties of doing independent journalism in Belarus are many. Those who try are forced to leave the countryâ€, warns Tchultsova, who adds that those who remain “are very brave peopleâ€.
Reporting from abroad, although it means more freedom, also has many limitations: “Not being able to be in the country about which we write prevents us from doing interviews on the street and knowing people’s opinions. We cannot record stories or cover everything that needs to be covered.†But despite that, Txultsova claims that journalists carry out an essential task “transmitting truthful information about what is happening in the country to the Belarusians.”
