The growing oasis of independent Belarusian media in Lithuania

Following the rigged presidential election in Belarus in August 2020, Pavel Marinich has realised that independent media could no longer exist in this country. Just a few months later, together with a team of independent journalists, he began broadcasting programs for the audience of the neighbouring country from Lithuania. The online news channel Malanka Media was founded in Vilnius. At this critical time in 2021, the channel’s activities and the establishment of the studio were supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers Office in Lithuania.

From observation of the election to an independent channel

Even before Malanka Media was established, Pavel had founded a civic platform Zubr to observe the presidential election 2020 in Belarus. Mainly it is thanks to the initiatives of Zubr and Golas who worked together that the world has realised that Lukashenko is not the legitimate president of Belarus.

“The people of Belarus sent pictures and various information proving the illegal organisation of the elections and the falsification of the results. So we decided to do a short newscast every day to show people real, everyday examples of public deception in Belarus. As we did not have our own platform at that time, we were helped by other popular independent Belarusian media channels that used to rebroadcast our content,” says Pavel.

Malanka Media that is currently running on Youtube  has 123,000 subscribers and runs as many as 14 different programs. As the number of Malanka Media followers grows on a daily basis, its editor does not rule out the possibility of establishing a news agency in the future.

Pavel is grateful to Belarusian civil society for the channel’s success.

“Almost all the information we broadcast is based on what people from Belarus send us. In other words, our audience is also the creator of this channel. We have established a strong contact between the producers of this broadcast, our viewers, and the interlocutors whom we invite to live broadcasts. Therefore, people have the opportunity to directly ask, discuss or suggest topics for discussions,” says the journalist.

The Goal Is to Educate Young Belarusians

The editorial staff consisting of several dozen employees aims to become the first Belarusian television to be retained by Belarusian citizens, and is currently focusing on attracting a younger audience.

“In 26 years, the entire generation of Belarusians grew up under the sole rule of Lukashenko. Now this generation is starting to raise their own children and we really want to educate them about Belarusian identity, culture, history and language. However, it is important to pay attention not only to the children, but also to their young parents. We want them to become viewers of our channel as well. This generation of parents is especially important to us,” assures Pavel.

When asked about the challenges facing the editorial office, the Head of Malanka Media regrets that there are only 24 hours in a day. In the room-sized studio, the broadcasts run one after the other, but they are produced by a very small team of journalists.

Although English subtitles are available on some of the channel’s programs, having a larger team would allow the materials to be translated into other languages, primarily English and Polish. This would also allow for the set up of culture and sports news sections.

“We are very grateful to the Nordic Council of Ministers Office in Lithuania, because it was only thanks to their support that we were able to start working, acquire the necessary equipment and implement new independent media projects,” says Pavel Marinich.