(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 8 December 1998 CPJ press release on the occasion of its trip to Minsk, Belarus, to present an International Press Freedom Award to journalist Pavel Sheremet: **Updates IFEX alert of 25 November 1998** Representatives of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today hand-delivered its 1998 International Press Freedom Award […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 8 December 1998 CPJ press release on the
occasion of its trip to Minsk, Belarus, to present an International Press
Freedom Award to journalist Pavel Sheremet:
**Updates IFEX alert of 25 November 1998**
Representatives of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today
hand-delivered its 1998 International Press Freedom Award to Belarusian
journalist Pavel Sheremet in Minsk, two weeks after Belarus authorities
denied Sheremet permission to travel to New York to accept the honor at a
gala awards ceremony.
With dozens of independent journalists, diplomats, and Belarusian
politicians on hand, CPJ executive director Ann Cooper personally presented
the award to Sheremet, whose plight drew international attention and
widespread press coverage at the organization’s New York awards ceremony on
November 24 at the Waldorf-Astoria. The ceremony in Belarus was arranged
with the help of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, an organization
representing independent media.
“This support, from U.S., Russian, and European journalists, is very
important to my colleagues here,” said Sheremet today in accepting the
award. “CPJ has closely tracked my problems with the Belarusian authorities
as editor of Belarusskaya Delovaya Gazeta, dating back to 1996,” he said.
The 28-year-old Sheremet has endured every kind of harassment for his
coverage of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko’s crackdown on the media
in Belarus. Sheremet is the Minsk bureau chief of ORT (Russian Public
Television) as well as editor of Belarusskaya Delovaya Gazeta.
In 1997, Sheremet was stripped of his media accreditation, jailed for two
months, and barred from leaving the country in reprisal for his
investigative reports on Lukashenko’s Soviet-style policies. The Belarus
government denied CPJ’s request to temporarily lift the travel restrictions
on Sheremet so that he could travel to New York for CPJ’s annual
International Press Freedom Awards dinner on November 24.
Belarus authorities finally lifted the travel ban on November 26, two days
after the ceremony.
“The timing of this decision confirms what we already suspected, that
restricting Sheremet’s travel to New York was a politically motivated effort
to stifle press freedom,” said Cooper.
As a gesture of support to Sheremet and his colleagues, Cooper and CPJ
Europe program coordinator Chrystyna Lapychak traveled to Minsk to
personally present the award. “We’re honoring Pavel not only for his
professionalism, but also for his special courage and his readiness to
defend the universal rights of journalists,” said Lapychak.
The CPJ International Press Freedom Awards honor journalists who have
bravely provided news coverage and viewpoints in the face of arrest,
imprisonment, violence against them and their families, and threats of
death. Other journalists who received the 1998 awards are Grémah Boucar,
director general of Radio Anfani in Niger; Gustavo Gorriti, a Peruvian
investigative journalist who is associate editor of La Prensa in Panama;
Goenawan Mohamad, founder and editor of Tempo news magazine in Indonesia;
and Ruth Simon, a correspondent for Agence France-Presse who has been
imprisoned in Eritrea since April 25, 1997.
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit
organization dedicated to securing press freedom and the rights of
journalists worldwide.
