(RSF/IFEX) – RSF expressed outrage after Belarusian authorities announced the closure of the Russian public television Rossia’s offices in Minsk for broadcasting “biased information” about an opposition demonstration. RSF urged the authorities to reconsider the arbitrary decision, announced on 23 July 2004. “As President Alexander Lukashenko uses all possible means to stay in power, including […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF expressed outrage after Belarusian authorities announced the closure of the Russian public television Rossia’s offices in Minsk for broadcasting “biased information” about an opposition demonstration.
RSF urged the authorities to reconsider the arbitrary decision, announced on 23 July 2004.
“As President Alexander Lukashenko uses all possible means to stay in power, including a constitutional referendum, this act of censorship illustrates the continuing drift towards authoritarianism,” said the organisation.
State television reported in its 23 July evening news broadcast that authorities had announced the shutdown of Rossia’s Minsk offices because of its “deliberate use of false information that is insulting to Belarusian citizens and has a negative impact on the image of the Republic of Belarus.”
Journalist Dmitri Petrov reported on Rossia that 2,000 to 5,000 people had joined a 21 July opposition demonstration in Minsk, while police estimated attendance at only 193 people. International news agencies spoke of about 4,000 demonstrators.
On 22 July, Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Martynov ordered Petrov and Rossia’s Minsk bureau chief Andrei Kachura to make a public apology.
The 21 July demonstration against President Lukashenko, marking the tenth anniversary of his accession to power, came shortly after he announced a referendum on the question of allowing heads of state a third term in office.
In 2003, authorities closed the Belarus office of Russian television station NTV for what they deemed “controversial” reporting on the funeral of a writer and Lukashenko opponent (see IFEX alerts of 10 July and 30 June 2003). Alexander Stupnikov, NTV’s Belarus correspondent, was expelled in 1997 for similar reasons (see alerts of 31, 27 and 24 March and 12 February 1997).
In its 2004 annual report, RSF condemned the harassment of the independent press in Belarus. The organisation lists President Lukashenko as one of 37 “predators of press freedom” worldwide.
