Polish media outlets appeal to government to support Belarusians

The editors of many of Poland’s largest media outlets have signed an open letter calling on the government to provide greater support for Belarusians seeking help in Poland.

Meanwhile, a deputy foreign affairs minister has said that Raman Pratasevich, the founder of a Warsaw-based media network detained in Minsk last week, had his application for asylum in Poland discontinued because he wanted to go to Lithuania to work for the Belarusian opposition there.

Among the signatories of the appeal are the editors and other prominent figures from daily newspapers Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Wyborcza, Fakt and Dziennika Gazeta Prawna; weeklies Newsweek, Wprost and Tygodnik Powszechny; websites Onet and Wirtualna Polska; and broadcasters Radio Zet, TOK FM and TVN24.

The open letter reads:

In connection with the unprecedented actions of the government of Belarus towards the country’s citizens, including independent journalists, we appeal to the government of the Republic of Poland for support for the citizens of Belarus seeking help in Poland.

 

As independent journalists of a democratic country, we feel compelled to react and call upon the Polish government to simplify and accelerate the granting of political asylum and international protection to all those requesting it of the authorities of our country.

 

We appeal to make all possible efforts in the international arena to bring about the release from Belarusian prisons of all human rights activists, including the journalists Raman Pratasevich and Andrzej Poczobut.

Pratasevich was detained in Minsk after the Polish-registered Ryanair plane on which he was flying to Lithuania was forced to land, in what Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki called an “unprecedented act of state terrorism” that “cannot go unpunished”.

He is one of many Belarusian activists to have sought refuge in Poland amid repression in their homeland, in particular after last August’s disputed presidential election. The Nexta media network that he founded in Warsaw has been used to rally Belarus’s opposition.

Some media reports indicated that Pratasevich had been granted asylum in Poland, although it was later confirmed that this was not the case. His former partner claimed that his application was rejected.

“Raman Pratasevich was under the full protection of the Polish state” but the international protection procedure was discontinued because he did not complete it, Marcin Przydacz, a deputy foreign affairs minister, told Onet on Friday.

“He left for Lithuania because he wanted to join [Belarusian opposition leader] Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and work for her,” Przydacz added, noting that international protection status was unlikely to affect Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko’s treatment of a citizen of the country.

“Raman Pratasevich left Poland and you can hardly expect Poland to guarantee him safety throughout the world,” he said. Przydacz also met with the activist’s parents, who are currently living in Poland, promising them “all help and readiness for further support in initiatives to free their son”.

Andrzej Poczobut, the other figure named in the open letter, is a journalist and activist from the Polish minority in Belarus who was arrested in March this year. He is one of four prominent Polish-Belarusians over whom there has been growing concern after they were detained on charges including inciting hatred.

Relations between Poland and Belarus have deteriorated over Poland’s overt support for the Belarusian democratic opposition led by Tsikhanouskaya, which has included offering refuge to activists, businesses and students fleeing the Minsk regime.

Lukashenko has accused Warsaw of seeking to interfere in his country’s internal affairs and even of wanting to grab former Polish territory from Belarus.

Main image credit: Jana Shnipelson/Flickr (under public domain)

Ben Koschalka

Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.