European Radio for Belarus

Launch Euroradio was established by the Belarusian journalist Dmitry Novikov, former head of the popular Minsk Radio 101.2, which was shut down by the authorities in 1996. The station targeted the youth audience and aimed for a 70/30 balance of music and news. Editors' office In the summer of 2009 the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs finally allowed Euroradio to open its correspondent office in Minsk. The accreditation has to be prolonged yearly. By 2014 Euroradio's audience was around 300,000, primarily comprising those within the 18-30 age range. Euradio was headed by Julia Slutzkaya until 2010 when she had to leave the country after presidential elections. Vitaliy Zubluk became the new chief editor, he resigned in 2016 and became the general producer. He was succeeded by famous blogger Victor Malishesvky. Dr. Anastasiya Ilyina was an editor of ERB in 2010–2019. On 2 April 2018, Victor Malishevsky took the post of creative editor, Pavel Sverdlov became ERB chief editor. In 2019 the station underwent restructuring, five journalists from the Warsaw office and several in Minsk were made redundant. Chief editor Sverdlov commented on this as on business optimization. The anonymous source explained that ERB funding had recently decreased significantly. On 31 July 2023, the European Parliament passed a resolution in which it asks the European Commission and the Member States, to strengthen Belarusian media outlets, including Euroradio. == Content ==

Music A significant part of the broadcasting is taken up by world and Belarusian (about 10%) music. publishing of the Budzma The Best Rock / Budzma The Best Rock/New compilation. News bulletins are broadcast daily from 7 am to 10 pm three times per hour. ERB has three flagship programs – EuroZOOM, Petard, and Cardiogram. EuroZoom is a daily informational program that covers Belarus in the political and cultural space of Europe. Petard presents the five most actual topics of the current events. Cardiogram is dedicated to the human rights agenda. Investigations Euroradio has gradually developed its own section of investigative journalism. For example, in 2013 Yauhen Valoshyn published his investigation on the poppy seeds market in Belarus. On 9 September 2014, ERB journalist Dmitry Lukashuk interviewed Donetsk People's Republic Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko. Two days later, Lukashuk facilitated the release of eight Ukrainian soldiers from captivity after directly asking Zakharchenko to release them. == State pressure ==

All TV and radio channels in Belarus are governmental and controlled by the BelTA agency. The Belarusian journalists and chief editors open up about KGB following their steps and wiretap their calls. According to them, every independent media in the country has its own 'curator' in KGB, the officers have a schedule - one official interrogation per year and two unofficial ones. After the 2010 Belarusian presidential election, Zybluk was detained and interrogated by KGB. On 25 December 2010, the police searched ERB Minsk news office and confiscated almost all equipment from it. The search was performed on Saturday, when no staff members were present at the office, and without warning. In 2012 Pavel Sverdlov was detained by the police on his way home from the office, he was sentenced for 15 days in prison for 'swearing in a public place'. Sverdlov was not allowed to meet a lawyer, his case was based on contradicting testimonies of two policemen. In six months he was refused the journalist's press accreditation because of this conviction. During the 2015 Belarusian presidential election Belarusian independent press faced constraints in access to information. Euroradio's website was blocked on 12 October 2015. During the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests independent media was blocked inside Belarus, and access to the internet was cut out from 9 August. Euroradio's websites were subject to DDoS attacks. ERB journalists were many times detained by the police while covering news on protest rallies after the elections. In 2021 and 2022, Belarusian courts added the Telegram, YouTube, Instagram pages of the radio and its logo to the Republican list of extremist materials; in July 2022, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus designated it as an extremist group. In 2022 and 2023, several people who have been interviewed by the radio were arrested and imprisoned for it on charges of assisting extremist activity. == Awards ==

• ERB journalist Maryna "Rusya" Shukyurava received ‘П’еро’ Award inFreedom of Speech nomination (2009); • Dmitry Lukashuk got first prize at BAJ "Вольнае слова" Competition (2015). ==References==