Blog: Belarus Archives - Committee to Protect Journalists

Blog | Belarus

Archaic court ruling in Belarus as photo book banned

By Muzaffar Suleymanov/CPJ Europe and Central Asia Research Associate

Thursday's court ruling in the western Grodno region of Belarus is not befitting a modern European country, where servants of justice--prosecutors and judges--are expected to ensure protection for press freedom and human rights. Instead, it is reminiscent of medieval Europe, where dissent was declared heresy and ordered destroyed.

The Oshmyansky District Court ruled that the 2011 edition of the Belarus Press Photo album contained extremist materials that "deliberately contort" social, economic, and political life in the country. Belarus Press Photo is an independent press photography contest that aims to support, promote, and develop local photojournalism, according to its mission statement.

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Blog | Belarus

Travel leave for Belarusian reporter no change of heart

By Muzaffar Suleymanov/CPJ Europe and Central Asia Research Associate

In an unexpected development reported in the press today, Belarusian authorities temporarily lifted a travel ban on Irina Khalip, prominent journalist and reporter for the Moscow-based independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta. The restriction, which includes a weekly check-in with district police and a requirement to spend every night in her Minsk apartment, was part of a suspended two-year prison sentence handed to Khalip in May 2011 on fabricated charges of mass disorder in connection to her reporting on presidential elections.

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Blog | Belarus

Lukashenko can unshackle Khalip, a 'victim of the regime'

By Muzaffar Suleymanov/CPJ Europe and Central Asia Research Associate

Is Irina Khalip, the prominent Belarusian journalist, free to travel? President Aleksandr Lukashenko, whose government prosecuted her on bogus charges of creating mass disorder, says that she is. That Khalip has not, the president said, shows that she would prefer to be known as a "victim of the regime." Of course, this all seems strange considering that Khalip's sentence requires her to be home by 10 p.m. daily.

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Blog | Belarus, CPJ, Philippines, Russia

Twenty-three days to take action against impunity

By María Salazar-Ferro/Coordinator, Impunity Campaign and Journalist Assistance Program

Approximately 30 journalists are targeted and murdered every year, and on average, in only three of these crimes are the killers ever brought to justice. Other attacks on freedom of expression occur daily: bloggers are threatened, photographers beaten, writers kidnapped. And in those instances, justice is even more rare. Today, the Committee to Protect Journalists joins freedom of expression advocates worldwide in a 23-day campaign to dismantle one case at a time a culture of impunity that allows perpetrators to gag journalists, bloggers, photographers and writers, while keeping the rest of us uninformed.

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Blog | Bangladesh, Belarus, Burma, China, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, Nepal, North Korea

China not most censored, but may be most ambitious

By Madeline Earp/CPJ Senior Asia Research Associate

China didn't make the cut for our 10 most censored countries. While the Chinese Communist Party's censorship apparatus is notorious, journalists and Internet users work hard to overcome the restrictions. Nations like Eritrea and North Korea lack that dynamism.

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Blog | Belarus, Uzbekistan

What US can't accept in Belarus, it supports in Uzbekistan

By Muzaffar Suleymanov/CPJ Europe and Central Asia Research Associate

Last week, President Obama signed into law a bill that expands sanctions against Belarus, whose authoritarian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko continues to imprison his opponents and critics. Lukashenko unleashed the latest crackdown hours after the flawed December 2010 presidential vote, which declared him winner of a fourth term. Repression in Belarus is ongoing. Last week, authorities further tightened their grip on the media by restricting access to blacklisted websites. On Monday, a district court in Minsk jailed an independent reporter for filming a one-man protest vigil in front of the KGB headquarters.

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Blog | Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, CPJ, Mexico, Pakistan

Awardees to their colleagues: Buck the system

By Kristin Jones/CPJ Guest Blogger

The Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria might seem like an odd venue to stage a call for resistance. Nine hundred people in tuxedos and gowns. Champagne and cocktails. Bill Cunningham snapping photos. This combination is generally more likely to coax a boozy nostalgia than foment a revolution. But the journalists honored last night at CPJ's annual International Press Freedom Awards had a clear message to their colleagues: Fight the power.

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Blog | Belarus

A ray of hope for the embattled press in Belarus?

By Muzaffar Suleymanov/CPJ Europe and Central Asia Research Associate

In a rare development, the Belarusian general prosecutor, Grigory Vasilevich, stepped up for journalists and defended their right to report on ongoing political protests. According to a statement issued by his press office on Friday, Vasilevich sent a letter to Interior Minister Anatoly Kuleshov in which he reminded his colleague of journalists' rights under the law. While noting that police have a duty to protect public order and that journalists have an obligation to comply with national laws, Vasilevich urged Kuleshov to instruct police to do their work without obstructing reporters.

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Blog | Belarus, Russia

Under house arrest in Belarus for not playing by the rules

By Nina Ognianova/CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator

It has been four long months since security forces snatched Irina Khalip, at left, from Minsk's Independence Square while she was reporting on a protest of the flawed December 19 Belarusian presidential vote.

While Khalip was giving a live account from the square to the Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy, riot police beat her and forcibly drove her away. (Her husband, opposition presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov, was repeatedly struck with clubs and also arrested. He remains imprisoned today.) Khalip was one of at least 20 journalists detained that night, but her treatment has been especially harsh.

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Blog | Belarus, Uzbekistan

EU has contradictory message on Karimov, Lukashenko

By Muzaffar Suleymanov/CPJ Europe and Central Asia Research Associate

After defying the EU for years, Uzbek President Islam Karimov is welcomed by Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission. (Reuters/Thierry Roge)

Unless European Union officials mean to expose the inconsistency of their own policymaking, they should stand firm by their declared commitment to defend press freedom and human rights in the former Soviet countries. For now, their drastically different approaches to authoritarian leaders in Belarus and Uzbekistan leave one questioning the EU's strategy.

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Belarus

Archaic court ruling in Belarus as photo book banned

Travel leave for Belarusian reporter no change of heart

Lukashenko can unshackle Khalip, a 'victim of the regime'

Twenty-three days to take action against impunity

China not most censored, but may be most ambitious

What US can't accept in Belarus, it supports in Uzbekistan

Awardees to their colleagues: Buck the system

A ray of hope for the embattled press in Belarus?

Under house arrest in Belarus for not playing by the rules

EU has contradictory message on Karimov, Lukashenko

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Impunity Campaign

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