A dissident, a plane and the future of Belarus

Post Reports

The Washington Post

Daily News, Politics, News

4.4 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 May 2021

⏱️ ? minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What a forced plane landing in Belarus could mean for state sovereignty and press freedom. And, how some Americans are dealing with accent bias.

On Sunday, Belarusian authorities forced the landing of a commercial flight carrying travelers from Athens to Lithuania, mere minutes before its final descent. Michael Birnbaum reports on President Alexander Lukashenko’s goals in downing the flight, and the international response to the arrest of a dissident journalist on board.

Accent bias is a subtle but insidious form of discrimination. But as some Americans seek to get ahead in their careers by taking accent modification courses, others are asking whether they should have to change their accents to get ahead. Rachel Hatzipanagos reports.

Today is the anniversary of George Floyd’s death. In our episode, “The Life of George Floyd,” we hear about Floyd’s family, his upbringing and how racism hobbled his ambition — a story that reflects the lives of many Americans.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the newsroom of the Washington Post.
0:07.0	Hi there is the Mayor, Marissa Lang with the Washington Post.
0:11.0	Hey it's Dossie, order to pick your brain on the truck.
0:13.0	Hi, my name is Janet Johnson.
0:15.0	This is Post Reports.
0:16.0	I'm Martine Powers.
0:19.0	It's Tuesday, May 25th.
0:24.0	Today, a plane's emergency landing in Belarus and what it means for press free.
0:29.0	That means for press freedom.
0:31.0	Plus the pressure to change the way you speak.
0:36.0	I am Michael Bernbaum.
0:39.0	I'm the Brussels Bureau Chief for the Washington Post.
0:43.0	And for a long list of reasons during the pandemic I've been holed up for much of the last year in Latvia,
0:51.0	which turns out to be super convenient when a plane gets quasi-high jacked in airspace nearby
0:59.0	and there are a whole bunch of Baltic citizens who get in trouble.
1:04.0	Yeah, it does sound convenient among other things.
1:07.0	So I want to kind of take people back.
1:11.0	This all started on Sunday with a Ryan Air flight from Greece to Lithuania.
1:17.0	From the perspective of the passengers on this flight.
1:20.0	What happened?
1:22.0	So this was a weekly flight that runs between Athens, Greece and Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.
1:32.0	The kinds of people who take this flight, particularly this time of year,
	...

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