(WAN/IFEX) – In a 6 June 2002 letter to President Alexander Lukashenka, WAN and the World Editors Forum (WEF) expressed serious concern over the prosecution of journalists Nikolai Markevich and Pavel Mojaiko for defamation. According to reports, on 4 June a court in Grodno began hearing the case against Markevich and Mojaiko, chief editor and […]
(WAN/IFEX) – In a 6 June 2002 letter to President Alexander Lukashenka, WAN and the World Editors Forum (WEF) expressed serious concern over the prosecution of journalists Nikolai Markevich and Pavel Mojaiko for defamation.
According to reports, on 4 June a court in Grodno began hearing the case against Markevich and Mojaiko, chief editor and reporter, respectively, for the opposition magazine “Pagonia”, who are accused of defaming the president. Markevich and Mojaiko could both face five-year jail terms after publishing two articles and a poem accusing the president of being involved in the disappearance of a number of opposition figures and the creation of death squads during last September’s presidential election campaign. Police seized the offending publication before it was distributed and the magazine was closed down.
WAN noted that the criminal law is a wholly inappropriate means of dealing with the issue of defamation, and that such practice contravenes a number of international agreements. The organisation believes that a civil award of reasonable damages is adequate and appropriate relief in all proven cases of defamation.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the president:
– calling on him to immediately drop the charges against Markevich and Mojaiko
– urging him to do everything possible to ensure that defamation is swiftly decriminalised and replaced by a civil course of action
– recalling that the United Nations Commission on Human Rights considers that “detention, as punishment for the peaceful expression of an opinion is one of the most reprehensible ways to enjoin silence and, as a consequence, a grave violation of human rights”
Appeals To
His Excellency President Alexander Lukashenka
Republic of Belarus
c/o Permanent Representative to UN
Email: belarus@un.int
Please copy appeals to WAN.
