Belarus

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 30 May 2003 CPJ press release: BELARUS: Information Ministry closes independent newspaper for three months New York, May 30, 2003-CPJ is disturbed that the independent, Minsk-based newspaper Belaruskaya Delovaya Gazeta was forced to cease publication for three months on order of Belarusian information minister Mikhail Podgayny. Minister Podgayny issued […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has called on Information Minister Michail Padhajny to rescind his 28 May 2003 decree suspending the independent daily “Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta” and its monthly supplement, “BDG. Dla Sluzhebnoho Polzovaniya” for three months for allegedly “breaking the news media law”. The suspension of “Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta” is “part of a new offensive in […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has voiced its concern about threats to press freedom in Belarus to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on the eve of a visit to Minsk by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s ad hoc working group on Belarus, scheduled from 25 to 28 May 2003. In a letter to the […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF and the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) have called for the investigation into the disappearance of Dmitri Zavadski, a Belarus cameraman for the Russian television station ORT, to be reopened. In a 27 February 2003 letter, the official heading the inquiry, Ivan Branchel, told Zavadski’s widow, Svetlana Zavadskaya, that the authorities had […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 24 March 2003 CPJ press release: BELARUS: Court grants parole to imprisoned journalist New York, March 24, 2003-A Zhlobin district court in eastern Belarus granted parole on Friday, March 21, to Paval Mazheika, a journalist with the independent newspaper Pahonya. The journalist was released immediately and traveled to his […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has welcomed the release on parole of Nikolai Markevich, editor-in-chief of the opposition newspaper “Pagonya”, on 4 March 2003. The organisation has also stressed that it was unacceptable that there were still constraints on his freedom. RSF also reiterated its call for the release of “Pagonya” reporter Pavel Majeiko and Viktor Ivaskevich, […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On 6 February 2003, RSF strongly protested a court’s cancellation of Romuald Ulan’s commercial licence. Ulan is founder of “Novaya Gazeta Smorgoni”, an independent weekly in the town of Smorgon. The court decision threatens the paper’s very survival. “Your government is systematically using bureaucratic and legalistic means of obstruction to censor and gag […]

(WAN/IFEX) – In a 1 December 2002 letter to President Alexander Lukashenka, WAN and the World Editors Forum expressed their serious concern over the closure of “Myestnoye Vremya” newspaper. According to reports, on 27 November, the Information Ministry closed the independent “Myestnoye Vremya”, which was founded in October and had only published three issues, on […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On 19 November 2002, RSF expressed concern over official statements concerning the recent discovery in Belarus of a body that may be that of Mikhailo Kolomiets, head of the news agency Ukrainski Novyny. The organisation called on Ukraine’s general prosecutor, Svyatoslav Piskun, to personally take up the case and offered to send a […]

(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – In a 4 October 2002 letter to President Aleksandr Lukashenka, ARTICLE 19 expressed concern over the news of the adoption, on 3 October 2002, of the Law of the Republic of Belarus on the Insertion of Changes and Amendments in the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Freedom of Denomination and […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a CPJ press release: BELARUS: CPJ outraged by conviction of independent journalist New York, September 16, 2002-The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged by today’s conviction of Viktar Ivashkevich, editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Rabochy. A Minsk district court found Ivashkevich guilty of libeling President Aleksandr Lukashenko and sentenced […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed its concern over administrative obstacles that have been threatening Radio Free Europe’s Belarusian service since the beginning of August 2002. “There is too little foreign media in Belarus. It would harm the Belarusian population to be deprived of an alternative source of information to public channels, such as Radio Free […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 12 August 2002 CPJ letter to President Aleksandr Lukashenko: August 12, 2002 His Excellency Aleksandr Lukashenko President of Belarus Republic Minsk 220020 Via Facsimile: 011-375-172-23-58-25 Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged by your government’s continued use of libel lawsuits and official harassment in its unyielding […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has voiced its utmost concern about the fate of the independent press in Belarus. On 2 August 2002, the Minsk independent daily “Nasha Svoboda” received a fine that threatens its survival and authorities continue with plans to prosecute the independent newspaper “Rabochy”. These moves follow the jail sentences imposed in June on […]

(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a 4 August 2002 WAN and World Editors Forum (WEF) letter to President Alexander Lukashenka: His Excellency Alexander Lukashenka President of the Republic of Belarus c/o Permanent Representative to UN Email: [email protected] 4 August 2002 Your Excellency, We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On 16 July 2002, the Belarusian Supreme Court confirmed the life sentence of Valery Ignatovich, former head of the Interior Ministry’s special police force, and one of his subordinates for their part in the kidnapping and disappearance of journalist Dmitri Zavadski and five other murders. RSF and the Damocles Network noted that the […]