Belarusian journalist in exile calls out state abuses

DW (English)

Reporters Without Borders ranks Belarus as the worst country for press freedom in Europe. Maria Savushkina, a Belarusian journalist currently living in Berlin, reaches tens of thousands of people back home with her political satire.

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00:00Maria Savushkina is fighting for a free press in her native Belarus.

00:04She has not been able to live and work there for a long time.

00:09We didn't have a free elections campaign, we didn't have media freedom,

00:15so we had time to time we had political prisoners and all this was because we have a

00:25cruel political regime of Alexander Lukashenko.

00:29Based in Berlin, she now produces anti-regime videos that call out state abusers.

00:34Savushkina reaches tens of thousands of people in Belarus with her satire.

00:42In her home country, she was active as a journalist and as a campaigner for human rights.

00:47Over time, that required more and more courage.

00:50I have never had this kind of experience in my life, what I experienced there.

00:56We've been so proud of each other, we've been so brave and we protect each other.

01:05Things got worse in 2020.

01:07There were protests over the allegedly rigged election.

01:10Critical journalists were arrested.

01:12We've been sure that at least some people from our team will be arrested.

01:20In case we will stay inside the country.

01:23And we decided to escape.

01:27First to Ukraine, then to Poland.

01:30Now she lives in Berlin with a colleague.

01:33I met her and she told me about what's happening to her, about her exile.

01:39And press freedom is one of my main issues for decades.

01:43And now we are roommates.

01:46Freedom of the press in Belarus is non-existent.

01:49Even in Berlin, Maria Savushkina has to be careful and must package her content cleverly.

01:55What I'm trying to do is to find new ways to reach young audience, to reach people in Belarus

02:04with news content, but maybe not in format of news, but in format of political satire, for example.

02:13I live here in Germany, in Berlin, but all my thoughts, my home, my family, places I like,

02:23they are in Minsk.

02:26She has one request for Europe and the US.

02:28Don't forget Belarus, where independent journalists are treated like political prisoners.

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