April 2021 in Europe and Central Asia: A free expression round up produced by IFEX's Regional Editor Cathal Sheerin, based on IFEX member reports and news from the region.
April reminded us that “strongmen” are the wrong men if you want a free press and vibrant civil society. The month saw sweeping powers handed to the president in Kyrgyzstan, independent journalists threatened by legislation in Belarus and Kazakhstan, and civil society and the press targeted in Russia. But April also saw writer Ahmet Altan released in Turkey.
The worst country in Europe for press freedom
If you thought the situation for journalists in Belarus couldn’t get much worse, April had a nasty surprise for you. The month saw lawmakers approve legislation which would drastically restrict the journalistic activities of the country’s already embattled independent media.
Both the Belarusian Association of Journalists and Human Rights Watch detail some of the most disturbing changes contained in this legislation, including: making it illegal for journalists to “discredit” the state, thereby effectively prohibiting any criticism of the government; enabling the authorities to strip journalists of accreditation for allegedly committing a crime while carrying out professional duties; and banning journalists from livestreaming mass unauthorised (i.e all) protests.
The authorities continue to persecute independent, critical voices. Bloggers Sergei Petrukhin and Alexander Kabanov were sentenced to three years in prison this month for “organising” protests ahead of the disputed presidential election of August 2020. The Prosecutor General tried – and failed – to have the sentence handed to jailed journalist Katsyaryna Barysevich increased; she will be released in May.
Extremely worrying is the case of writer and Belarusian PEN member Aliaksandr Fiaduta, who was detained in Moscow mid-month by the Russian FSB working with the Belarusian KGB and transferred back to Belarus. It is not known what charges he faces, although media outlets report bizarre accusations made by President Lukashenko that Fiaduta and another detained man were part of a US-backed plot to assassinate him.
Following the news about the “assassination plot”, Lukashenko announced that he would amend the law on presidential succession so that power will be handed to the National Security Council (of which his eldest son is a prominent member) in the event of the president dying in office.
Fiaduta is not the only target of dubious accusations. In late March, the Attorney General’s Office opened a “terrorism” case against exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.
April also saw a number of human rights reports published, each of which underlines Belarus’s worsening rights situation since August 2020:
- The 2021 Annual Report of the partner organisations to the Council of Europe’s Safety of Journalists Platform highlights the situation in Belarus, even though it lies outside the Platform’s system, because of the scale of the crackdown on the media. The report calls on “Council of Europe member states to put geopolitical considerations aside and take an unambiguous stance regarding this unprecedented wave of attacks on independent journalism in a country in the middle of Europe”.
- PEN America’s Freedom to Write Index 2020, which looks at the free expression situation for writers and public intellectuals globally, revealed that Belarus is now the fifth worst country in the world for putting intellectuals, writers and artists behind bars (only China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran are worse).
- Reporters Without Borders’ 2021 World Press Freedom Index now ranks Belarus 158th out of 180 countries evaluated, making it the lowest placed country in Europe.
- Amnesty International’s 2020/21 Report details the Belarusian authorities’ mass violations of human rights, their systematic use of torture against people detained during the anti-Lukashenko protests, and their refusal to grant the victims the opportunity to seek justice. According to Amnesty, “The Belarusian authorities admitted receiving some 900 complaints of abuse by police in connection with the protests but by the end of the year not a single criminal investigation had been opened, nor had any law enforcement officer been charged with respective violations.”
In response to the ongoing rights violations, the US announced on 19 April that it would re-impose sanctions on nine state-owned enterprises. And on 21 April, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution calling for Council of Europe member states to exercise universal jurisdiction, apply “Magnitsky”-style sanctions to hold Belarusian officials accountable, and demand that Belarus release all political prisoners.
For updates on how the country’s culture sector is faring under the crackdown check out PEN Belarus’s latest issue of Cultural Resistance in Belarus. Also take a look at this interview with the independent Belarusian journalist Hanna Liubakova, who reports that one positive aspect of the current situation in Belarus is the citizens’ growing trust in and appetite for independent journalism.
Please also check out IFEX’s regularly updated Belarusian chronology, where we bring together all our monthly summaries of IFEX members’ activities and other key developments in Belarus.
Central Asia: “Strongmen” and strong women
In Kyrgyzstan, voters have handed their nationalist strongman president, Sadyr Japarov, sweeping powers in a referendum on the new constitution. Critics have described the results as signalling a return to authoritarianism. While expanding the president’s powers, the constitution also removes democratic checks and balances. The president will now be able to appoint judges and heads of law enforcement, and will be able to bypass parliament (which will shrink from 120 seats to 90) by calling referenda at his own initiative.
Like a number of strongmen heads of state, President Japarov has recently taken to spreading disinformation about treatments for COVID-19, in this case publicly encouraging people to take a toxic root as a cure. As a result of the president’s advice, four individuals poisoned themselves in April and needed hospital treatment in the capital, Bishkek.
Nationalists assaulted women’s rights campaigners in Bishkek on 14 April while they were protesting outside the Ministry of the Interior. The women were calling on the government to do more to address the ongoing problem of bride-kidnapping and gender-based violence in Kyrgyzstan. The demonstration was triggered by the horrific abduction and murder of Aizada Kanatbekova on 5 April. Writing about Kanatbekova and the wider problem more generally, Human Rights Watch’s Syinat Sultanalieva, points to the failures of law enforcement as a contributor to the crime: “Kidnapping women for marriage is a crime in Kyrgyzstan, but men abduct women regularly and with impunity”.
Bride-kidnapping is also common in parts of neighbouring Kazakhstan: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) recently published the story of a survivor and her ongoing fight for justice, despite police inaction and her real fear of being targeted again.
This month, Kazakh IFEX member Adil Soz issued a statement calling for draft legislation which introduces the “right to be forgotten” into Kazakh law to be scrapped. According to the bill, “upon request of an individual or his legal representative the owner of an Internet resource is obliged to remove outdated or irrelevant information from the search data.” According to Adil Soz, “the introduction of this rule will de facto introduce censorship, block journalistic investigations and stymie anti-corruption efforts”.
In Uzbekistan, Agnieszka Pikulicka, a journalist who reported on a vicious assault on an LGBTQI+ blogger last month, was accused this month by the Ministry of the Interior of spreading disinformation in her reporting about the attack. Spreading disinformation is against the law in Uzbekistan, where it carries a hefty fine and can lead to a journalist being stripped of their accreditation. Pikulicka has also been threatened recently via Telegram, where she has been accused of organising an LGBTQI+ “coup” on behalf of the CIA, and where there have been calls for people to “take action” against her.
Russia: “Extremists” and “foreign agents”
In Russia, April began with President Putin signing a law that will allow him to run for president twice more in his lifetime, meaning that he could be in office until 2036.
The month also saw the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office initiate legal proceedings to have civil society organisations linked to the Putin-critic and jailed anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny labelled “extremist”. If this designation is imposed, these organisations’ activities will be banned and their staff members and supporters could face criminal prosecution. Pending a ruling, prosecutors have already suspended the activities of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation and its regional network.
Thousands took to the streets again mid-month calling for Navalny to be released and protesting corruption under President Putin. Police arrested approximately 1,600 demonstrators and also targeted journalists covering the protests.
April also saw Russian authorities designate independent media outlets Meduza and PASMI as “foreign agents”, adding them to a list that includes Voice of America and RFE/RL, Medium Orient, and five individual RFE/RL journalists.
In mid-April, the Moscow bureau of RFE/RL petitioned the European Court of Human Rights, asking the court to grant interim measures ordering Russia to refrain from enforcing the 520 “administrative protocols” that it has brought or threatened to bring against the media outlet since January 2021 under the Foreign Agents Law. RFE/RL is facing fines amounting to millions of dollars.
In brief
There was welcome news from Turkey on 14 April when writer and journalist Ahmet Altan and his co-defendant Nazlı Ilıcak were released. This came after the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned their bogus convictions on terrorism-related offences. They were handed lengthy prison sentences in November 2019.
Earlier in the month, IFEX members and others called on EU leaders (ahead of their visit to Turkey) to make improved relations, economic or otherwise, dependent on a substantial improvement in Turkey’s domestic human rights record.
Crime reporter Giorgos Karaivaz was shot dead outside his home in Athens, Greece on 9 April. His assailants fired ten bullets into him before escaping on a motorbike. According to news reports, police believe that Karaivaz was murdered by an organised crime group because he was investigating a series of killings between rival syndicates. Karaivaz was also a witness in National Intelligence Service investigations into corrupt police, gambling and protection rackets. He regularly received death threats.
Also in Greece, journalist and publisher Kostas Vaxevanis has been placed under police protection after reports that a contract was put on his life.
