Charter Of My Heart

Not only the repressions endured, but also the families created.

25 years ago, when I heard about the Charter'97 website, I could not have imagined that this story would continue for a quarter of a century and, it seems, for many more quarters in the future. I thought at the time that the website would be just a page of text and signatures, nothing more. What else is there? In 2002, even advanced companies were starting to create their own websites. In 1998, it was out of the question.

And suddenly - the Charter website. Well, let it be. Then there was the idea that the site should have news and articles on current affairs, that it should be constantly updated, every day. This seemed to me to be a completely stupid and pointless idea. A website cannot be a mass media outlet. A newspaper is. It's paper, it's pages you can turn. It's a product: "you hold it in your hands". Whereas the website is a strange thing. Who needs news on a website when only a few people can afford Internet in their homes? News to which there is no permanent access is just someone's whim, Bebenin's curiosity.

Then, somehow, gradually, imperceptibly, the moment came when, when I came to work in the editorial office of the Belarusian Business Newspaper, the first thing I did was to read the news on Charter. Piotr Martsev, editor-in-chief and publisher, asked jealously: "Isn't the BDG enough for you?" It's not that it wasn't enough for me, it's just that everything about Charter was special, not in a newspaper way. I realise now that Charter was the first independent e-media at the time, and that it was created intuitively, without knowing the rules. It became number one, despite poor funding. Then new news websites appeared with huge budgets, but no one managed to squeeze Charter. The place of a free, sharp, scathing media remains with it today. The options "we don't write about it now, we can't, we have to wait" are impossible there.

The journalist Lubov Luneva recently recalled on her Facebook page how one day in Palanga in the summer she went to an internet café and saw Natallia Radzina in the corner, enthusiastically typing something. I asked her: Natasha, what are you doing? It's hot outside, why aren't you at the beach? She replied: "The website has to be updated all the time, the readers do not care if I am on holiday or not. And I remember how Natasha, already in exile, got up at five o'clock in the morning on 31 December to start publishing news, because the time difference with Minsk is two hours, which means it's already seven hours there, and readers are waiting for news. Readers are waiting for the New Year, I told her, readers are either asleep, or over the stove, or out shopping. They wouldn't notice if the news was an hour late on the last day of the year. But no arguments worked. Readers may not notice, Natasha said, but I will.

And I also remember the cell in the KGB pre-trial detention centre, December 2010. We had just been charged, and Natasha was impatient to be called in for questioning, to see her lawyer, and to ask if the website was up to date. Because if it's not up to date, it's a disaster. Later, when she was in prison for up to 15 years, she didn't think it was a disaster, but if the website wasn't updated, it was a tragedy. Later, Natasha continued to work, although she was not allowed to leave the country. And in the deep underground, sitting in Moscow without documents. And today - as always. And tomorrow. Until 2010, Natallia felt protected by Aleh Bebenin. He took full responsibility, helped and protected her. He held an umbrella over her. After his death, she was left alone, with full responsibility for the website, and with riot police kicking down the door of the newsroom. Everything that happened to independent media in 2020-2021 happened to Charter much earlier. The raid, the arrest of the editor, the blockade, the work in exile. And a voice that gets louder and louder. And new young journalists who love freedom and truth.

I don't know if I should remind you that I met my husband, Andrei Sannikov, at a presentation of the Charter many years ago. So the value of the Charter is not only the repressions experienced and the millions of readers around the world, but also the families created and the children born. And therefore life.

Happy birthday, Charter of my heart!

Iryna Khalip, especially for Charter97.org

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