Parliamentary Assembly Assemblée parlementaire Doc. 10165 28 April 2004 Persecution of the press in the Republic of Belarus Opinion 1 Committee On Culture, Science And Education Rapporteur: Mrs Christine Muttonen, Austria, Socialist Group I. Conclusions The Committee on Culture, Science and Education fully supports the evaluation of the media situation in Belarus given by the Political Affairs Committee in the report on the “Persecution of the press in the Republic of Belarus” and, in particular, in paragraph 10 of the draft resolution. Amendments to the draft Resolution: * After paragraph 5, add a new paragraph as follows: “Furthermore, the State allows a situation whereby the functioning of media outlets can be at the mercy of local administrations, of printing houses and distribution agencies. Independent media have to operate in discriminatory economic conditions”. * After paragraph 5, add a new paragraph as follows: “The Assembly condemns as totally unacceptable in a democratic society subjecting journalists to imprisonment, including forced labour, for criticism of the President and state officials, which is currently possible under the provisions of articles 367, 368 and 369 of the Criminal Code”. * Reword the first sentence up to “the freedom of information” of paragraph 7 as follows: “The Assembly believes that the current controlled media landscape does not provide for”. * At the end of the first sentence of paragraph 8, add “and that the Belarus authorities have not fulfilled their commitment to send the draft to the C ouncil of Europe for expertise”. * At the end of paragraph 11.ii, add “and, more generally, aimed at enhancing the understanding of democratic standards in the media field and reinforcing public opposition to any form of repression against free speech”. At the end of paragraph 12.vi, add “along the lines of Recommendation 1641 (2004) on public service broadcasting”. Amendments to the draft recommendation: At the end of the recommendation, insert a new sub -paragraph 3 reading as follows: “encourage member states to provide objective and impartial broadcasting programmes and print and Internet publications aimed specifically at the Belarusian public”. 1 See Doc. 10107 presented by the Political Affairs Committee F – 67075 Strasbourg Cedex, tel: +33 3 88 41 20 00, fax: +33 3 88 41 27 76, http://assembly.coe.int, e-mail: [email protected] Doc. 10165 II. Explanatory memorandum The Committee on Culture, Science and Education itself has repeatedly condemned the systematic harassment of independent media and journalists in Belarus: in its report on “Media and democratic culture” in 1999 (Doc. 8355), on “Freedom of expression and information in the media in Europe” (Doc. 9000, Assembly Recommendation 1506 (2001), and on “Freedom of expression in the media in Europe” (Doc. 9640 rev., Assembly Recommendation 1589 (2003). Furthermore, in January 2002 the Committee held a hearing in Strasbourg on the situation of the media in Belarus, with the participation of the then Minister of Information of Belarus Mr Mikhail Padhayny, representatives of the Belarus Association of Journalists, members of Parliament, representatives of the non - parliamentary opposition, journalists and NGOs (see appendix). The Minister made an official commitment to send a draft media law to the Council of Europe for examination. In June 2002, the Minister wrote to the Chairman of the Committee, Mr de Puig, to ensure him that the draft would be submitted following parliamentary hearings in the autumn. Despite these promises no text has yet reached the Council of Europe. Further specific criticism has come from the General Rapporteur on the Media Mr Paschal Mooney who, in June 2003, strongly protested against the suspension of two independent newspapers in Belarus, Belorusskaya delovaya gazeta (BDG) and BDG-For Internal Use Only. The initial Rapporteur for opinion of the Committee on Culture, Science and Education Mr Mihai Baciu, who accompanied the Rapporteur of the Political Affairs Committee to Belarus in December 2003, is no longer a member of the Parliamentary Assembly. It has therefore been impossible to prepare this opinion on the basis of personal impressions. It is based on the extensive material on press freedom violations in Belarus which the Committee has gathered over the last years. The outstanding evidence is that nothing in the media situation in Belarus has improved since Recommendation 1506 stated in April 2001 that Belarus“ remains the country where the deeds of the authorities most blatantly go against the values and principles in the media field defended by the Council of Europe”. All the developments confirm that the Belarus authorities are not simply unable, but rather are unwilling to change the situation. Strict control of the media and repression against critical opinions are typical features and one of the main foundations of a dictatorship. The example of the Soviet Union “glasnost” must still be fresh in President Lukashenko’s mind. This is why the Rapporteur doubts that the recommendations to the Belarus authorities contained in the draft Resolution, relevant as they are, will have any effect while the present regime is in place. However, they are useful as a check list against which any performances should be weighed. They can also serve as a European reference for those in Belarus who are fighting, often at the risk of losing their jobs and even their freedom, in order to bring more democracy to the country. They should therefore be supported by the Assembly. In order to make the Recommendation as comprehensive as possible, certain elements should be added: Belarus is one of the very few countries in Europe where journalists can be sent to labour camps for criticising state officials. This is what happened to Mikola Markevich and Paval Mazheika, respectively editor - in-chief and reporter at the Hrodno-based independent weekly Pahonya and Viktar Ivashkevich, editor-in - chief of the independent newspaper Rabochy . They received prison sentences for libelling President Aleksandr Lukashenko and purged part of their sentences doing forced labour. They were subsequently freed, but articles 367, 368 and 369 of the Criminal Code still provide for imprisonment for insult and defamation of the President and state officials. More recently the opposition leader Anatoly Lebedko, chairman of the United Civic Party in Belarus was charged with defaming President Lukashenko in an interview on the Russian state television network Rossiya. The deputy editor of BDG Irina Khalip is also under criminal pros ecution for allegedly libelling the Prosecutor General Viktor Sheiman. The report rightly states that the legal basis for the harassment of independent-minded media is a requirement for print media to receive a state licence. However, critical outlets are systematically intimidated and their functioning could be at the mercy of tax and fire inspectors or road police. The most recent example of the latter was the harassment of the independent newspaper “Djen” published currently by Mr Markevich. According ot Reporters without Borders (RSF), a housing administrative office in Grodno accused the organisation that hosts the Den team of illegally sub-letting to the newspaper and ordered them to vacate 2 Doc. 10165 their offices before 15 May. The total print-run of 4800 copies of the newspaper was confiscated by the Road Traffic Service. Independent newspapers are also systematically refused the services of printing houses and distribution agencies. They have to compete with the state press in unequal economic conditions. Most recently, for instance, pressure was put on local businesses to subscribe to at least 3 government press publications. The efforts of the international community should be focused in three directions: 1) finding ways and appropriate funding to ensure that the citizens of Belarus receive as much independent and comprehensive information about national and international affairs as possible. This should include financial support for print publications and broadcasting and also using fully the possibilities of modern technologies, such as satellite and Internet. According to a recent poll conducted by the independent Institute of Socio-Economic and Political Studies (NIISEPI) in March only 4.4% of respondents say their main source of information is Interne t. Harassment against Internet publications has also been reported (according to RSF journalist and human rights activist Natalya Kaliada was fined in February for writing articles for the site run by Charter 97, a human rights organisation that is not rec ognised by the authorities). Nevertheless, Internet could be a valuable source of independent information and is an avenue which should be better explored As far as radio and television is concerned, there are reports that the authorities are trying to substitute with Belarusian, state-controlled programmes even the Russian channels (themselves state-controlled) which are popular amongst the audience. More blatantly, in June 2003, after the Russian channel NTV broadcast a report on the burial of the writer Vasil Bykau, its correspondent Pavel Selin was stripped of accreditation by the Belarus Foreign Ministry and deported from Belarus and in July 2003 the NTV office in Belarus was closed. It was re -opened only in February 2004. BAJ reported recently that the Belarusian Ministry of Information has put in force a new directive “On the distribution of periodicals registered outside the territory of the