{"id":584054,"date":"2026-10-01T22:11:49","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T19:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=584054"},"modified":"2026-10-02T09:32:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T06:32:43","slug":"latushka-at-pace-supporting-independent-belarusian-culture-is-an-investment-in-a-democratic-and-secure-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/latushka-at-pace-supporting-independent-belarusian-culture-is-an-investment-in-a-democratic-and-secure-europe","title":{"rendered":"Latushka at PACE: Supporting Independent Belarusian Culture Is an Investment in a Democratic and Secure Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Supporting independent Belarusian culture is an investment in a democratic and secure Europe, Pavel Latushka<\/strong>, a representative of the Coordination Council delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said<\/a> at a meeting of the PACE Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media.<\/p>\n

“What is happening in Belarus today is not simply repression. It is the systematic destruction of national identity. It is an attempt to completely absorb Belarus into the ideology of the ‘Russian world,'”<\/em> the politician said.<\/p>\n

According to him, data from the Belarusian PEN shows that at least 428 cultural workers have been dismissed for political reasons. Hundreds of cultural organizations have been liquidated and private cultural initiatives destroyed. More than 100 cultural workers are currently behind bars, many of them recognized as political prisoners.<\/p>\n

The meeting was also attended by PACE rapporteur on the situation of Belarusian culture and Polish Sejm member Agnieszka Pomaska<\/strong>. She is preparing a report entitled “Culture as a Foundation for the Democratization of Belarus.”<\/p>\n

Pomaska said there was a need to provide more stable support for independent cultural organizations, expand Belarusian cultural workers’ access to European professional networks, and help distribute independent cultural and educational content inside Belarus.<\/p>\n

“Culture is not separate from democracy. It is one of its foundations. Therefore, our task is not simply to protect individual cultural figures or institutions. We must help preserve Belarusian culture as a living cultural space \u2014 both inside Belarus and beyond its borders. This means providing more stable support for independent cultural organizations, giving Belarusian cultural workers access to European networks and professional opportunities, and helping independent cultural and educational content reach people inside Belarus.<\/em><\/p>\n

And most importantly, Belarusian cultural workers themselves must be involved in shaping policies designed to support them. The future of Belarusian culture matters not only to Belarusians. It also matters to the future of a democratic, independent and secure Europe,”<\/em> she stressed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Supporting independent Belarusian culture is an investment in a democratic and secure Europe, Pavel Latushka, a representative of the Coordination Council delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said at a meeting of the PACE Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media. “What is happening in Belarus today is not simply repression. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":584053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6abf500e5549b.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Latushka at PACE: Supporting Independent Belarusian Culture Is an Investment in a Democratic and Secure Europe"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142375,142338],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-584054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-news"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}