00:02Alina Koushik and Maxim Katz, two opposition journalists living in exile who respectively fled Belarus and Russia, pursued their work
00:11far from home.
00:12The Lukashenko's regime labelled Koushik a terrorist and an extremist, while Moscow designated Katz a foreign agent and sentenced him
00:20in absentia to eight years in jail.
00:22I'm not a terrorist, I'm just a journalist. For many, many years I've been working just to say the truth,
00:29alternative point of view. And this is not a crime. Journalism is not a crime.
00:34Koushik is the editor-in-chief of Belsat TV, a Poland-based channel aimed at broadcasting independent news to neighbouring
00:42Belarus.
00:42Despite the distance, Koushik says she tries to keep contact with Belarus as much as possible by scanning legal sources,
00:50authorities' websites, but also Telegram channels and TikTok.
00:54Yet she cannot interview Belarusians over the phone, as Minsk labelled Belsat an extremist organisation in 2021, with journalists and
01:03viewers facing up to seven years in jail.
01:05She stresses satellite networks are crucial to broadcast in Belarus to avoid censorship and prevent authorities from tracing the viewers.
01:13Meanwhile, although Russian authorities have blocked access to YouTube, it remains accessible with a VPN.
01:18Katz believes it is the best way to reach Russian viewers. And adapting the languages, he says.
01:24You talk about problems that Russian people see from their window, in their day-to-day life.
01:33Also, generally, about the war and what is going on. Obviously, I'm anti-war and anti-Putin. But the question
01:39is, how do you tell it?
01:41And if you want to talk with Russian audience, you should talk as you would talk in a kitchen in
01:45St. Petersburg and not in a protest action in Riga.
01:49The journalists stressed the best way to deconstruct Minsk and Moscow's propaganda is by informing the audience based on facts.
01:56Both hope to return to their home country one day.
