Committee to Protect Journalists - Belarus

Belarusian journalist harassed, denied press accreditation

2009-03-05T22:24:49Z

New York, March 5, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Belarusian authorities to renew work credentials for Andrzej Poczobut, a local correspondent for Poland's largest daily, Gazeta Wyborcza, and to investigate recent harassment of him and his family in the western city of Hrodno. Poczobut's credentials were pulled after he reported on the policies of President Aleksandr Lukashenko and the activities of the Belarusian security service.

Attacks on the Press in 2008: Belarus

2009-02-10T05:47:00Z

In a February visit to Belarusian State University, President Aleksandr Lukashenko bluntly outlined his regime's press policy. "Media hold a weapon of a most destructive power," Lukashenko told journalism students, "and they must be controlled by the state."

Despite protests, Lukashenko signs restrictive media law

2008-08-05T16:00:00Z

BELARUS:

New York, August 5, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is troubled to learn that President Alexander Lukashenko has signed a restrictive new media law, which, according to CPJ research, will allow authorities to further restrict press freedom in Belarus.

The Belarusian parliament—before its adjournment in late June—rushed the bill through in three consecutive readings and passed it to the Constitutional Court for review. According to the local press, the court rubberstamped the bill in July and Lukashenko signed it into law on Monday.

Belarus considers restrictive media law

2008-07-08T16:00:00Z

His Excellency Aleksandr Lukashenko
President of Belarus
38, Karl Marx St.
Minsk, 220016
Belarus

Via facsimile: + (017) 226 0610 and (017) 226 3217

Dear Mr. President,

As an independent, nonpartisan organization defending press freedom worldwide, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on you to veto a severely restrictive draft media law, which will further curb press freedom conditions in Belarus. The bill was adopted by the upper chamber of the Belarusian parliament on June 28 and now awaits your consideration.

Authorities crack down on independent journalists

2008-03-27T16:00:00Z

BELARUS:

New York, March 27, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by a sudden crackdown by Belarusian authorities against independent journalists in the last few days. Today, the Belarusian Security Service (known as the KGB) raided the offices of independent broadcasters and the apartments of more than a dozen journalists, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) reported. Two journalists were detained and beaten on Tuesday in a separate incident.

Libel laws crippling Belarusian newspapers

2008-03-06T17:00:00Z

March 6, 2008

His Excellency Aleksandr Lukashenko
President of Belarus
38, Karl Marx St
Minsk, 220016
Belarus

Via facsimile: + 375 (17) 222 0610 and 375(17) 226 0610

Your Excellency,

As an independent, nonpartisan organization defending press freedom worldwide, the Committee to Protect Journalists would like to draw to your attention your government's selective use of politically motivated civil libel lawsuits against critics. Intolerant officials punish what remains of Belarus' independent media with lawsuits that result in exorbitant fines, further debilitating the outlets. Since 1999, the Committee to Protect Journalists has documented such targeted attacks against at least five independent and oppositions newspapers.

BELARUSEditor freed after being jailed for Prophet cartoons

2008-02-25T17:00:00Z

BELARUS:

New York, February 25, 2008—The Belarusian Supreme Court has ordered the early release of Aleksandr Sdvizhkov, former deputy editor of the now-shuttered independent newspaper Zgoda, who was sentenced in January to three years in a high-security prison for reprinting controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2006.

Attacks on the Press 2007: Belarus

2008-02-05T16:51:00Z

BELARUS

Authorities moved aggressively to control the Internet, introducing sweeping new restrictions that allow the government to monitor citizens’ use of the Web. President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s administration continued its practice of suppressing dissent—but paid a price in May when the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) denied Belarus a seat following international criticism of the country’s poor human rights and press freedom record.

Editor jailed over Muhammad cartoons

2008-01-18T17:00:00Z

New York, January 18, 2008—Minsk City Court in Belarus today imprisoned Aleksandr Sdvizhkov, an editor at the now-shuttered independent weekly Zgoda (Consensus) newspaper, for reprinting controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2006. Sdvizhkov was charged with “incitement of religious hatred” and sentenced to three years in a high-security prison.

Sdvizhkov was arrested on November 18 and his trial began on January 11 in Minsk, according to local news reports. He was tried behind closed doors.

Authorities crack down on freelancers after a protest rally in Minsk

2008-01-14T17:00:00Z

New York, January 14, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the detention of one freelance journalist and the interrogation of three others in Minsk, and it calls on Belarusian authorities to halt persecution of the independent press. Arseny Pakhomov, a freelance photographer working for the independent weekly Nasha Niva, was arrested and sentenced to 15 days in prison last week after covering a business protest, the Belarusian Association of Journalists reported.

Independent Belarus newspaper faces closure

2007-12-17T17:00:00Z

New York, December 17, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply worried about a defamation lawsuit by a Belarusian senior government official against the independent weekly Novy Chas in the capital, Minsk. A ruling against the paper would bankrupt Novy Chas and force it to shut down, according to local CPJ sources.

In late October, Nikolai Cherginets, a member of the parliament’s upper chamber and chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations and National Security, filed a civil lawsuit against Novy Chas’s publisher, Vremya Novostei, and its reporter Aleksandr Tamkovich. The suit stems from Tamkovich’s critical profile of Cherginets, published in the September 24 issue of Novy Chas, the paper’s editor-in-chief, Aleksei Korol, told CPJ.

Belarusian jailed on spurious charge; ’uncensored swearing’ alleged

2007-03-21T16:00:00Z

New York, March 21, 2007—A judge in the western city of Grodno has sentenced Igor Bantsyr, a reporter for the independent Polish-language magazine Magazyn Polski na Uchodzstwie, to 10 days in prison for “uncensored swearing” in public.

Judge Natalya Kozel of the Leninsky district court convicted Bantsyr on Monday after hearing testimony from two police officers who claimed they heard the journalist swearing in the center of the city, according to local press reports. The officers arrested Bantsyr at 4 p.m. on Sunday in downtown Grodno, the Belarusian Association of Journalists reported.

Attacks on the Press 2006: Europe and Central Asia Analysis

2007-02-05T16:54:00Z

Getting away with murder in the former Soviet states
By Nina Ognianova

The assassin in a baseball cap who gunned down Anna Politkovskaya outside her Moscow apartment used a silencer. But reverberations from the contract-style slaying of Russia's icon of investigative journalism were felt around the world.

Attacks on the Press 2006: Belarus

2007-02-05T16:42:00Z

BELARUS

Determined to forestall the kind of democratic uprising that toppled the government in neighboring Ukraine, authoritarian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko and his government crushed dissent in the run-up to the March presidential election—and well beyond. Official results showed that Lukashenko collected 83 percent of the vote to gain a third term, but international observers said the election fell far short of democratic standards. Authorities arrested dozens of domestic and foreign journalists who tried to report on the campaign and subsequent demonstrations in the capital, Minsk, over voting irregularities. In the months surrounding the election, the Lukashenko administration made it nearly impossible for independent and opposition media to deliver news and opinion to their audiences. The state postal service refused to deliver newspapers critical of the government; the state distribution agency banned sales of such papers on newsstands; printing houses refused to print them under government pressure; and border police confiscated entire press runs of publications that managed to find alternative printers abroad. Under such dismal conditions, papers set up distribution systems reminiscent of the underground press in Soviet times, selling copies from their newsrooms and dispatching volunteers to deliver them door-to-door to subscribers. Even then, some volunteers were arrested, CPJ research shows.

Journalists arrested covering opposition rally

2006-08-31T16:00:00Z

August 31, 2006
Posted: September 25, 2006

Galina Abakunchik Radio Free Europe /Radio Liberty
Sergei Pulsha, Belapan
Yuliya Doroshkevich, Nasha Niva
Yelena Yakzhuk, Solidarnost
Yekatirina Gerasimov, Vladislav Pyatnitsa, Pavluk Konovalchik, Navinki