The Freedom Chat: A Conversation with Michał Janczuk

The Freedom Chat is a new video series by Sampsonia Way featuring interviews with journalists and other media workers facing censorship and repression in their home countries. In these Q&A’s, conducted via video chat, journalists talk with Sampsonia Way about press freedom, anti-free speech legislation, and exile.

For the sixth installment of The Freedom Chat, editorial assistant Olivia Stransky spoke to Michał Janczuk, a Belarusian journalist for Belsat. Belarus is ranked 157th on Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index, and in 2012 Janczuk was temporarily banned from leaving Belarus. In this interview he talks about the affect of election cycles on free speech, the penalties journalists face, and why he will never stop.