Belarus’ newest online news portal, Zerkalo, or Mirror, emerged from the wreckage of the country’s most famous media outlet, TUT.BY.
For more than 20 years, TUT.BY informed millions of readers about what was happening in Belarus and the world. That is, until the Lukashenko regime closed it down this year by arresting 15 of its employees.
This move left TUT.BY’s remaining staff with a problem: how to salvage the country’s most popular media, even though doing so risked criminal prosecution – and yet still remain true to the audience-winning model while operating outside the country’s borders. In the year since presidential elections gave way to mass police violence against protesters and fierce crackdown on any independent acticity, journalism itself has become a crime in Belarus.
