(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is greatly alarmed by President Alexander Lukashenko’s government’s decision to ban nine local publications, many of which had yet to publish their first issue. **Updates IFEX alerts of 28 September, 23 July, 31 May, 27 May, 21 May, 14 May, 13 May, 19 April, 16 March and 18 February 1999** On 4 […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is greatly alarmed by President Alexander Lukashenko’s
government’s decision to ban nine local publications, many of which had yet
to publish their first issue.
**Updates IFEX alerts of 28 September, 23 July, 31 May, 27 May, 21 May, 14
May, 13 May, 19 April, 16 March and 18 February 1999**
On 4 October 1999, Viktor Guretsky, director of the State Press Committee’s
licensing
board, canceled the registration of nine Minsk-based publications, claiming
they had failed to obtain local authorities’ approval for opening their
offices, as required under a provision of the country’s press law. Guretsky
claimed that his committee had hitherto enforced the provision only outside
Minsk, adding that the publications concerned have one month to seek the
needed authorization and reregister.
CPJ views this action as the latest assault in Lukashenko’s regime’s ongoing
war against the independent press in Belarus. The story of the
newly-registered “Nasha Svaboda”, one of the banned publications, is a case
in point. Editor Pavel Zhuk launched the paper to replace the defunct,
thrice-weekly “Naviny”. On 29 September, Zhuk published the last issue of
“Naviny” on borrowed funds, after authorities froze the newspaper’s bank
accounts and seized its assets in response to a defamation suit filed
against the paper by Security Council chief Viktor Sheiman (Lukashenko’s
government froze “Naviny”‘s bank accounts on the same day that Sheiman filed
the suit.)
Some of the other newspapers banned on 4 October include “Belorusskiye
Novosti”,
published by the independent Belapan news agency, and “Kurier Novogrudskiy”.
Also among the banned were the journals “Politsobesednik”, published by the
Communist Party of Belarus, and “Kurier”, owned and edited by Ihar
Hermianchuk, the former editor of “Svaboda” (an earlier incarnation of
“Naviny”).
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the president:
silence these nine publications
commitments to safeguard press freedom can only further isolate Belarus from
the international community
against
the independent press in Belarus
Appeals To
His Excellency Alexander Lukashenko
President of Belarus
House of Government
Minsk, Belarus 220020
Fax: +011 375 172 23 58 25
E-mail: infogrp@president.gov.by
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
