An update on Ihar Losik, a Belarusian blogger and contributor to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
Ihar Losik was among 52 Belarusian prisoners released on Sept. 11 after a U.S. government delegation visited Minsk. Losik had been serving a 15-year sentence that was handed down in retaliation for his online reporting and social media activities during the lead-up to 2020’s presidential elections rigged in favor of the country’s longtime dictator, Aliaksandr Lukashenka.
Consistent U.S. engagement with the Lukashenka regime has led to the release of three groups of Belarusian political prisoners this year – with three prisoners freed in February and another 14 liberated in June. These included Losik’s RFE/RL colleague Ihar Karnei and Siarhei Tsikhanouski, the husband of opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Despite these achievements, the Trump Administration must consider Lukashenka’s appalling human rights record and ongoing enablement of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of and aggression against Ukraine before taking further steps to engage with the regime in Minsk. As a start, more serious signs of rapprochement should be contingent on the release of the 1,300 political prisoners President Trump rightly mentioned during his Aug. 15 phone call with Lukashenka.
Losik’s freedom will no doubt be a relief to his family and colleagues after he had been held incommunicado for years at a time throughout his imprisonment. Prior to his release, the last time anyone heard from Losik was when he suddenly appeared in a Belarusian state-run video interview recorded in a prison cell and released in January 2025. In it, he “confessed” regret for his work with RFE/RL, but the interview footage could not hide Losik’s pallid complexion or obvious signs of frigid temperatures that make life inside Belarusian detention facilities extremely difficult. Indeed, new footage of Losik after he arrived in Lithuania revealed he had lost a considerable amount of weight in past months.
Beyond Belarus, Losik’s detention demonstrated that the work of U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) outlets like RFE/RL, Radio Free Asia, and Voice of America – whose journalists have also been jailed in Azerbaijan, Burma, Iran, Russia and Vietnam – clearly strikes a nerve with authoritarian regimes that aim to maintain a tight lid on information.
Securing freedom for journalists who have been arbitrarily detained abroad for their work and affiliation with the USAGM – the parent institution under which RFE/RL is chartered – should be a top priority for the agency itself.
The new leadership at USAGM should be speaking out for the freedom of 10 other journalists affiliated with USAGM media outlets around the world who have been jailed by autocratic regimes as a direct result of their work. Losik’s release demonstrates that sustained attention on their cases, in tandem with the administration, can make progress.
