The Alabama Public Radio newsroom addressed a delegation of expatriate journalists from the former Soviet nation of Belarus. The topic was APR’s national award-winning investigative journalism and how that type of reporting works in the United States. Neither the names nor the photographs of the visiting Belarusian reporters will be part of this story. They all face threats of jail or other reprisals in their home country.
The invitation for APR to speak came from the “Open World” program, run by the Congressional Office for International Leadership, housed in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The effort is an “up and coming” world leader spotter initiative, with the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny among its alumni. He died in prison after having been jailed by Vladimir Putin's Russia. The Belarusian journalists visiting Alabama have similar concerns.
It’s widely reported that it’s a crime to “insult” Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, punishable by up to five years in prison. In fact, one of the journalists APR addressed had reportedly been labeled an “insulter” of Lukashenko. The group “Reporters Without Borders” lists this former Soviet nation as being second only to Putin’s Russia for the most severe repression of an independent press. The Belarusian reporters APR spoke with fled their home country to avoid reprisal. They work for media companies in the Czech Republic, Lithuania, and the United States among other countries.
APR discussed freedom of the press in the United States, and the methods the newsroom uses in its investigative reports, which have ranged from prison reform to human trafficking to rural health. APR also focused on how politicians in the U.S. are taking steps which could be considered attacks on a free press. Former Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant is suing two journalists and the parent company of Sports Illustrated for defamation, over a Pulitzer Prize winning article on how welfare dollars were allegedly funneled to build a volleyball facility. APR explained to its Belarusian colleagues the 1964 U.S. Supreme Court case “New York Times v. Sullivan,” and how it established that public figures like politicians don’t enjoy the same defamation protections as private citizens. And, how the same decision ruled that reporters are bound by what’s known as “actual malice,” where a journalist cannot knowingly lie or act with a reckless disregard for the truth.
APR’s address followed a working ZOOM session on digital storytelling by Dr. Michael Bruce and Dr. Chandra Clark of the University of Alabama’s College of Communication and Information Sciences.
This is the fourth such opportunity for APR news to address a delegation from a Washington, D.C. based outreach program. The first three were from the U.S. State Department and its International Visitor Leadership Program, which includes alumni like Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, and Anwar Sadat. APR first discussed its 14 month investigation into human trafficking before a delegation from 13 African nations, all of whom fight this crime in their home countries.
