Supporting Belarusian journalists in Estonia in their fight against foreign interference and manipulation of information

By Rachel Pulfer, President, Journalists for Human Rights

Tallinn: Journalists for Human Rights, in co-partnership with Global Affairs Canada and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, recently teamed up with the Belarusian Association of Journalists. The goal was to train Belarusian journalists-in-exile in the use of Telegram scraping tools and Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) to track foreign interference and manipulation of information online (FIMI). (The tool was originally developed by a Ukrainian researcher at Toronto Metropolitan University.) Team JHR later joined a solidarity rally for the 33 Belarusian journalists who remain political prisoners in their country.

Estonia is one of the freest countries in the world, with a strong tradition of guaranteeing freedom of speech. Thanks to decades of navigating Russian information warfare, the Estonian population is more aware of the danger that Russian, Chinese and Iranian information manipulation represents to democracy than most.

For Estonia, the threat of Putin’s Russia is existential. At a dinner the foreign ministry hosted for JHR and the Belarusian Association of Journalists, one of the representatives from the ministry told me that the buoys along the River Narva defining the boundary line between Estonia and Russia had recently been removed. This, she said, was meant to be a warning that after Ukraine, Estonia is most likely next on Russia’s list for invasion, in Vladimir Putin’s grand plan to restore what many Russians perceive as the lost glory of the Soviet Empire.

Journalists for Human Rights more typically works in the Global South. Our logo features a radio station amidst palm trees. This was the first time I’d gone on a site visit where the destination locations were actually colder than back home in Toronto. So why are we here? Why support independent journalists in exile from dictators in Belarus and Russia, as we all swim in the sludge of too much manipulated information online?

We’re here because these journalists are heroes. They are fighting for a better future the only way they know how – through powerful reporting, replacing the sludge of manipulated information, the propaganda of dictators online, with truth and facts. For the only way to see clearly through that sludge, the only way we can effectively fight the abuse of authoritarians, hold over-reaching leaders accountable, and sow the seeds for a more free future for these countries is with truth and facts, provided by independent journalists.

We are working to stabilize, support, resource and help network these journalists so the people in this part of the world can see clearly through the chaos of manipulated information in order to know, in no uncertain terms, what their leaders are up to, and work with leaders who share democratic values to hold those leaders accountable to their abusive actions.

Case in point: The Belarusian journalist standing on my left, Alexandr, works for an investigative news outlet in Poland, Reform.news. Reform operates in exile with an investigative team of five and an annual budget of 250,000 euro.

This spring, Alexandr’s outlet ran a story documenting how a German far-right politican, Jorg Dornau, was operating an onion farm using Belarusian political prisoners as slave labour. When the story broke, Dornau’s peers in the Bundestag were outraged. The politician was roundly discredited and fined 20,000 euro. Alexandr and his colleagues in the Belarusian Association of Journalists continue to cover corruption and human rights abuses. Journalists for Human Rights is right there with them.