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Home , Belarus

CZECH

Permanent Mission of the to the

75th Session of the General Assembly

UN Security Council Arria-formula meeting on Media Freedom in Belarus

Statement by

H. E. Mr. Martin Povejšil

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs

Prague, 22, 2021

Check against Delivery

1109 – 1111 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10028 tel.: 1-(646)-981-4001, fax: 1-(646)-981-4099, www.mfa.cz/un.newyork

Excellency, Mr. Chairperson,

We wish to thank you for convening this meeting. We also thank to all distinguished briefers for their comprehensive and first-hand information about the gloomy media freedom situation and latest developments in Belarus.

We have been following very closely the situation in Belarus during last months, using credible, formal as well as informal, sources of information. From this perspective, everybody can see, once again, the crucial importance of independent media and a strong civil society in Belarus as a direct and reliable source of information and documentation of all developments, including appealing human rights violations, in the country.

Unfortunately, the space for free and independent media in Belarus is shrinking every day.

On 2 , the Belarusian Foreign Ministry cancelled the accreditations of all journalists working for foreign media organizations in the country. To date, no Belarusian nationals working for Western media have been accredited under the new procedures.

Two days ago, on 20 January, Andrei Alexandrov, a human rights defender and a prominent media manager and media expert, was arrested on suspicion of financing protests in Belarus for paying fines of the detained protesters. Alexandrov was detained as a suspect under article 342 of the Belarusian Criminal Code for “organization and preparation of actions, grossly violating public order, or active participation in them.”

This is just the latest example of repression and judicial harassment of people in Belarus, including journalists, media experts and human rights defenders, by the Belarusian law enforcement.

I would like to mention one concrete name, that of , a social media consultant of the Radio Free /Radio Liberty and an alumnus of the Václav Havel Journalism Fellowship (2015-2016). Ihar Losik was detained on 25 June 2020 and accused by authorities of using his popular Telegram channel to „prepare to disrupt public order ahead of the August presidential election in Belarus”. Now, he enters the sixth week of a hunger strike to protest his half-year of pre-trial detention and new charges by Belarusian authorities that could result in him being sentenced to eight years in prison. His health condition is alarming.

Another brave activist and blogger, Mikalai Dziadok, is now listed among political prisoners in Belarus. In 2020 he was detained, severely beaten and reportedly tortured during and after his arrest. We call on the to fully all these issues, in particular those related to freedom of expression, the media and safety of journalists, the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, the right to equal participation in political and public affairs, protection of human rights defenders; and to refrain from any further harassment of its own citizens.

Belarusian authorities must fully comply with all their international obligations and commitments in this regard. A thorough, transparent and impartial investigation of all attacks against journalists and media actors must be conducted. We believe that a discussion on finding appropriate international means for further investigating the gross human rights violations is needed.

In closing, I would like to pay tribute to all victims of the Belarusian regime and quote Václav Havel, our former president and also a former political prisoner: “Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.“

Thank you.