APRIL 27, 2005
Posted: May 3, 2005
Aleksey Ametyov, Newsweek
Mikhail Romanov, Moskovsky Komsomolets
LEGAL ACTION, IMPRISONED
A court in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, handed jail sentences to two Russian journalists arrested while covering an opposition rally, according to local and international press reports.
The Leninsky Court sentenced Aleksey Ametyov, a correspondent for the Russian edition of Newsweek magazine, to a 10-day term and Mikhail Romanov, a reporter for the Russian daily Moskovsky Komsomolets, to an eight-day term. The two were accused of participating in a rally not sanctioned by the Minsk government, according to press reports. The two were granted early release on April 30.
Ametyov and Romanov were among 40 people detained at the April 26 rally, which drew about 400 demonstrators to mark the anniversary of the April 1986 nuclear meltdown in Chernobyl. Protesters opposed President Aleksandr Lukashenko's policy to repopulate and farm the Chernobyl region, press reports said.
Tatyana Reviaka, a staffer with the Minsk-based human rights center Viasna, told CPJ that the journalists' case was heard behind closed doors; no journalists or observers were permitted in the courtroom. Reviaka said about 30 journalists were present at the rally, but only Ametyov and Romanov were arrested. Minsk authorities did not issue a statement clarifying why the two journalists were singled out.
In an interview for the Russian news Web site Gazeta.ru, Aleksandr Gordeev, editor-in-chief of the Russian edition of Newsweek, called the actions of Belarusian authorities "pure arbitrary rule" that is "insulting and unacceptable."
Demonstrators yesterday included Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian citizens, carrying posters, flags and banners covered with anti-Lukashenko slogans. Some carried the banned Belarusian red-and-white national flag and European Union flags; others had orange banners that invoked neighboring Ukraine's Orange Revolution, according to press reports.
Police dispersed the demonstrators yesterday evening. All of those arrested were handed jail sentences of up to 15 days and fined, The Associated Press reported.
Since coming to power more than 10 years ago, Lukashenko has stifled the opposition and eradicated independent media. The flawed October 2004 parliamentary election and referendum, which gave Lukashenko the right to run for a third presidential term in 2006, further consolidated his rule.
AUGUST 16, 2005
Posted October 31, 2005
Pavel Morozov, Andrei Obozov, Oleg Minich
HARASSED, CENSORED
On August 16, the city prosecutor's office in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, launched a criminal case against a Web site that published a series of animated Internet cartoons satirizing Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko. The case was opened under Article 367 of the Belarusian penal code, "Defaming the President of the Republic of Belarus," according to local press reports.
The series was created by anonymous cartoonists and posted on the Web site http://mult.3dway.org by the site's creators, Pavel Morozov, Andrei Obozov, and Oleg Minich. The site belongs to the civic group Third Way, which advocates for democratic reforms in Belarus. Morozov, Obozov and Minich could be charged with criminal libel, Andrei Bastunets, deputy director of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), told CPJ.
The two-minute animations mock Lukashenko's rule, his immediate circle, and allegations of election-rigging, according to local and international reports.
On August 16, agents of the Belarusian Security Service (KGB) raided Morozov's and Obozov's apartments, and confiscated at least a dozen computers, dozens of computer discs, software and other technical equipment. Agents also interrogated Morozov and Obozov for more than five hours about the cartoons and accused them of insulting the honor and dignity of Lukashenko by distributing the animations, according to local press reports.
On August 22, KGB agents called Minich and his wife to the KGB headquarters in the city of Grodno and confiscated their passports. The passports were returned after Minich filed a plea at the Minsk prosecutor's office, but the KGB retained the seized computers and equipment from Morozov's and Obozov's apartments.
Agents also blocked the Internet site during the raid. It later resumed operations when it switched servers, Bastunets told CPJ.
Media activists say the actions against Morozov, Obozov and Minich are part of a broader government crackdown on opposition activists and independent media in the run-up to presidential elections in Belarus scheduled for 2006.
Sergei Ivanov, the head of the investigations department at the Minsk prosecutor's office, said that there have been similar cases, but this is the first animated film case so far. More than 20 independent newspapers have been closed in the past two years, many of which were charged with defaming Lukashenka, BAJ reported.