BELARUS:

INDEPENDENT PRESS UNDER SERIOUS PRESSURE

In June, the Belarusan Helsinki Committee stated that Belarusan authorities had begun an unprecedented campaign in the contemporary history of Belarus to abolish the right to receive objective information and to ruin alternative sources of information and ideas. The Committee stated that "the people of Belarus are forced to accept only one view on domestic and foreign political development," adding that "in an atmosphere that restricts access to information, it is impossible to hold democratic, fair and free elections."

The Helsinki Committee is demanding that the government lift the de facto ban on the publishing of alternative opinions by the mass media, and condemns the violations of the right to freely receive and impart objective information and ideas, as provided under international human rights standards.

According to the Committee, the authorities issued warnings to 10 large non-governmental newspapers in Belarus during spring and early summer. According to independent legal experts, most of the warnings were based on far-fetched accusations. Moreover, the Ministry for Interior and the Chief Administration for Internal Affairs of the Minsk City Executive Committee did not carry out thorough investigations or take adequate measures against police officers who arrested and mistreated journalists on 25 March (see previous "IHF Periodic Report") and destroyed video and audio materials and equipment. The Prosecutor's Office did not react properly to the harassment of journalists by plain-clothed persons or police misconduct either.

In addition, legislative and other normative measures aimed at destroying the operation of the independent mass media have been taken. Such measures have forced the newspapers to register as commercial entities, which requires enormous starting capital and commercial activities.

The legislation provides 14 grounds for the extra-judicial closure of a newspaper by the authorities. Moreover, the Council of Ministers has issued an order prohibiting all commercial entities from placing advertisements in independent papers. According to the Belarusan Association of Journalists, there exists a "black list" of commercial entities which placed advertisements in independent papers: the chairs of such companies have been summoned for tax inspection and "recommended" not to advertise their goods and services in the independent press.

The state has a monopoly on printing, distribution networks and the electronic mass media, and it controls a number of newspapers. The independent press has to pay discriminatively high tariffs to the state distribution network "Belpost" and the state-controlled printing houses: papers loyal to the government only pay half of the printing costs. The state also hinders the establishment of independent local press.

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Source: Belarusan Helsinki Committee (BHC)

For more information please contact the BHC, Tatjana Protsko, phone +375-17-2224800, fax

+375-17-2224801, e-mail pratsko@user.unibel.by