Belarusian journalist rebuilds life after prison release
When Irina Slavnikova walked out of a Belarusian prison colony on September 11, 2025, she did not immediately feel free. After five years in detention, freedom for her was not a single moment but something that had to be rebuilt slowly and deliberately.
"Of course you are free," she said. "But when the foam settles, a person feels like a fish thrown onto the shore."
Slavnikova, one of the founding journalists of the independent broadcaster Belsat TV, was among more than 200 political prisoners released in 2025 under an agreement brokered by the United States. The group included journalists, activists and civil society figures silenced during the crackdown that followed Belarus’s disputed 2020 presidential election.
A pioneer of independent Belarusian TV
Belsat marked its 18th anniversary in December 2025. Slavnikova was there from the very beginning.
"We started preparing in 2006," she recalls. "We could not get proper television education in Belarus, so we trained in Poland. It seemed almost impossible that it would ever work."
On December 10, 2007, Belsat went on air for the first time, broadcasting independent journalism in the Belarusian language despite tight state control over the media.
Slavnikova entered journalism unexpectedly. Trained as an economist, she initially worked as an accountant at a youth newspaper. Everything changed the day her editor asked her to cover a protest.
"I went, I wrote something, and that was it," she said. "And it began."
By 2020, Belsat had become one of the most important independent media outlets in the country and a key source of live reporting during the mass demonstrations against President Alexander Lukashenko.
"It was clear our audience was growing dramatically," she said. "People could see with their own eyes what was happening on the streets."
That visibility made the channel a prime target for the authorities.
The crackdown of 2020
After the August 9, 2020 election, Belarus erupted in protests amid widespread evidence of falsified results. Belsat streamed these events live.
"Television and the internet have enormous influence," said Slavnikova. "The authorities understood that."
Journalists were detained, accreditations revoked and Belsat reporters received some of the harshest sentences. Two of their colleagues were given two years in prison simply for livestreaming a protest.
Many urged Slavnikova to leave Belarus. She refused.
"I loved Minsk. I kept saying, why should I leave? I was not doing anything illegal," she said.
But when her colleagues were jailed, the danger became personal.
"I could not leave while they remained imprisoned," she added. "I did not feel I had the moral right."
Freed Belarusian journalist rebuilds her life in exile
Arrest and imprisonment
In October 2021, returning from a vacation with her husband, Slavnikova sensed what was coming.
"I made eye contact with a border guard. He looked at a paper and said, 'She is coming.' At that moment, I understood it was over," she recalled.
She was detained at passport control and later sentenced to five years in prison. She was still serving her sentence when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
At the time, many believed international pressure might shorten political sentences in Belarus.
"When the war began, I told my cellmates, 'Girls, we will stay,'" she said.
Freedom without certainty
Slavnikova’s release came unexpectedly, one year before the end of her term. She was freed along with 52 other political prisoners as part of the US-brokered deal.
After years of strict routines, freedom felt disorienting.
"In prison, someone decides what you wear, what you eat, when you move," she said. "Your memory becomes short. You stop planning."
Polish supermarkets overwhelmed her. Being alone at home felt strange.
"My husband would leave for work, and I would think, I do not need to do anything. I really do not need to do anything?" she wondered.
Routine eventually returned, but she cannot work professionally while awaiting international protection. Still, she insists she will go back to journalism.
"I will return," she said. "Just give me time."
"It all felt like it was closing in on me"
Why support for released journalists matters
Slavnikova noted that her situation is relatively stable. Her husband was already in Poland, she had housing and colleagues, and she faced no language barrier. For many others, the challenges are far greater.
Support, she argued, must go beyond symbolic gestures. Psychological care is essential, as are legal and financial services.
"First, a person needs to breathe, stabilize. Then, real problems arise," she said.
In addition, banking restrictions linked to sanctions often prevent former prisoners from accessing financial assistance.
"Financial help may exist," she explained, "but people cannot access it without bank accounts."
Long-term professional rebuilding is just as important. Education programs and stipends could help journalists in exile prepare for the future.
"When the situation hopefully changes, people will return and they will be qualified to continue their work," she said.
She worries that independent Belarusian media in exile cannot afford to fade.
"If we lose the habit of watching independent news, someone else will fill that niche," she added.
Keeping Belarus in focus
More than 1,000 political prisoners remain behind bars in Belarus. As Russia's war in Ukraine dominates international attention, there is a growing risk that Belarus will be forgotten, even though repression continues unabated.
Slavnikova is now part of DW Akademie's Space for Freedom program, implemented with Press Club Belarus. The project offers professional, psychological and legal support to journalists in exile and to those recently released.
"People should not be left alone," she said. "Even something simple like inviting them for coffee, taking them to see the lights of Warsaw. Let them send a selfie home to show they are safe."
For her, support is not charity, it is strategic. Freedom may come suddenly, but rebuilding a life and rebuilding independent journalism takes much longer.
"This is a long-term investment in Belarus's future," she said.
"We decided to leave while we still could"
The project Space for Freedom is part of the Hannah Arendt Initiative and is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.