Some Media’s Failure On March

The street activity of the Belarusians will escalate regardless of this party of “sofa critics”.

The Outraged Belarusians’ March which passed in the center of Minsk on February 17, has become a unique street action.

Of course, it is unique because of the great number of people coming to the action in the first place, and because of the atmosphere reigning in the central avenue of the capital. However, this action also had one more peculiarity, which attracted the attention of many participants and social networks users.

Throughout the whole preparation of the action, only two or three major independent media wrote about it objectively. Thanks a lot to them for this, and also to all those who spread objective information about the March. The outraged and concerned journalists, bloggers, active users of social networks could feel the mood in the society and assess the potential for protest better than others. I am sure that their credibility among the readers only increased because of this.

However, most independent media persistently ignored the action, and some even announced it a “failure” in advance, and paid maximum efforts to prevent it from happening. I do not reveal these media outlets on purpose, hoping that it was the failure of certain press-officers, not the policy of the editors.

A month ago we — the organizers of the March — came across an unusual phenomenon. Some Belarusian journalists couldn’t remember the exact name of the action, although we announced it on January 17. They called it “march against the fees”, “march of the discontent”, and “march of the angry”, misleading their readers. If you don’t believe me, just search for “Outraged Belarusians’ March” in either Belarusian or Russian spelling at the independent websites, and you will see that some memorized the name of the action only the day before the actual event. I admit that some journalists probably can’t read, but it seems quite easy in the age of social networks to find organizers and clarify the name.

I would like to underline: it’s not the task of the media to call on people to come to a certain action. This is our mission, as participants and organizers of the March. However, the people are expecting at least objective coverage of the preparation work and adequate discussion of the possible options of developing the events.

Weirder things started happening closer to February 17. The information about the March started appearing, but the general message was either that the action would never happen or that no one knows about it, or in the sheer intimidation of the readers. Apparently, the 20 years of planting fear in the society weren’t enough. How can we assess the highlights like “Action To Be A Failure”, “Shall We Expect Mass Arrests Of “Social Parasites”?” “Political Generals Prepare To Passed War”, “March To Be A Buck Shot”, in any other way?

Yes, we could shift all the blame on “experts” and “politicians”, but their position is absolutely clear! Their attitude to the street protest is also well-known. Why not asking those who have other opinion, than the position of the editor’s office, about the action? Why not asking the ordinary people who discussed the action in the social networks?

What’s interesting, many continue to struggle with the Outraged Belarusians’ March even today., trying to lessen the number of participants or saying that some inappropriate slogans were sounded in the square. They had a month to initiate discussion of the action, to give the people who planned to come to the action an opportunity to express their opinions, offer some fresh ideas to the organizers. However, many media outlets preferred to ignore the preparation to the action. I read yesterday at one of the websites: “The people’s outrage, which passed unnoticed by everyone”… Not everyone, just the “experts”, who have no idea about the things happening around them; the “politicians”, who don’t know what the people want from them; and the “journalists”, who forgot about such things like objectivity and responsibility.

The street activity of the Belarusians will escalate regardless of this party of “sofa critics”. Today’s actions in the regional centers, in Homel in particular, confirm that. However, it would be good if the number of readers of the independent media also grew. The situation today is such that everyone should make a choice, even the journalists.

Yauhen Afnahel, Facebook