Accordingly, the independent print media has become a vital, yet diminishing resource for Belarusian citizens who seek an alternative viewpoint to that prescribed by the government, while the Russian television networks that are received in Belarus, such as ORT, NTV and RTR,66 have become the sole source of alternative television news coverage in the country. Despite the Russian television networks' relative stature, this has not prevented their correspondents from being subjected to harassment, censure, denial of accreditation, and expulsion.67 Independent Belarusian radio, such as Radio Roks, feature only brief, strictly neutral and non-controversial news bulletins in order to avoid harassment or closure. The Internet remains the sole source of information generally unhindered by the authorities, despite one recorded case of suspicious interference with an independent news web site during the November 1996 referendum.68 Indeed, the newspaper Svaboda freely used its web site to continue publication after the government banned it in print (see below). However, unofficial estimates suggest that only a few thousand citizens in Belarus have access to the Internet.
· To inform state officials that commentary on official documents to the opposition mass-media is not permitted;
· To forbid state establishments and enterprises to place advertisements in opposition newspapers [as these] are a major source of income for these newspapers.70
The memorandum was undated and signed by B. N. Bolozhinski, the Chief Advisor to the Social and Cultural Policy Department of the Presidential Administration, and made reference to a March 17, 1998 letter from President Lukashenka and a "Presidential Order on the Need to Strengthen Countermeasures against Articles in the Opposition Press." Points 1 and 2 of the memorandum clearly violate Article 34 of the Belarusian constitution, which states:
Citizens of the Republic of Belarus shall be guaranteed the right to receive, store and disseminate complete, reliable and timely information on the activities of state bodies and public associations, on political, economic and international life, and on the state of the environment.
Similarly, points 1 and 2 violate Article 19 (2) of the ICCPR, which reads:
Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally , in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.
Although the memorandum has no legal force, government agencies apparently comply with it. Moreover, information to independent media outlets had been informally banned prior to the memorandum. Two months beforememorandum was leaked, Ales' Lipau, director of the Minsk-based Belapan news agency described how the informal ban worked:
Warnings have been handed down to newspapers perceived by the state to be violating this law, even before the amendments were adopted. The ban importing `harmful' information has been enforced against a variety of different publications, including in, 1996, the newspaper Svaboda (Freedom), and in April 1997, against Belarusskaya Molodezhnaya (Belarusian Youth).74 In yet another enforcement of this restriction, on May 2, 1998, Belarusian authorities confiscated 900 copies of the Belarusskaya Vedemosti (Belarusian News, which is published in Poland), along with several hundred copies of political articles, at the Belarus-Ukraine border because of their political content. from Acting BPF Chair Levon Barshchevsky and his Deputy Sergei Papkov.75
The November 19 warnings relate to two articles published in Svaboda earlier in November. One article, entitled "Impeachment - The Second Attempt," drew parallels between Belarus today and 1937; the other, entitled "Belarus - Remembrance Day," accused the president of incompetence and criminal activity. In accordance with the Law on the Press, publications that receive "multiple" warnings are in danger of closure. In this instance, the Higher Economic Court ruled Svaboda to be in breach of Article 5 of the law and annulled its registration, thereby closing the newspaper. The two articles, and the three articles which previously drew warnings, were within the internationally accepted boundaries of free speech. Further, the closure of Svaboda for the expression of such opinions constitutes a clear violation of domestic and international instruments, such as Articles 33 (3) and 34 (1) of the Constitution of Belarus, Article 3 of the Law on the Press and other Mass Media, Article 8 of the Russia-Belarus Union Charter, and Article 19 of the ICCPR.
The Law on the Press leaves unclear what, if any, recourse exists to appeal a court decision closing a media outlet. Previously, newspapers that received warnings were not subsequently closed.
The closure of Svaboda culminated a systematic government-sponsored campaign to silence criticism of the president and of the government. Human Rights Watch has documented other methods - short of closure - employed by the Belarusian government to attack and silence the independent media. With specific regard to Svaboda, in 1996 these included: a huge fine at the end of 1996 (U.S.$3,000) for non-payment of taxes on copies of the newspaper that had been distributed free of charge; an attempt to evict Svaboda from its premises by raising the rent for their offices threefold; forcing Svaboda to print in neighboring Lithuania temporarily; and periodic bans on the newspaper's distribution.
On November 11, 1997, Imya (The Name), an independent weekly newspaper, received an official warning from Deputy General Procurator M.V. Snegir after the publication of a series of satirical photo-collages that featured President Lukashenka. The collages variously featured the head of the president along with the heads of other Belarusian and Russian government officials, including Russian President Boris Yeltsin, superimposed on the bodies of other persons, and political captions. The warning stated that the collages were of "an insulting character to the president," that they expressed the "obvious aim of the political and personal discreditation of the state leaders" and that they represented the president "in a manner not in accordance with genuine reality that degrades the honor and dignity of his person and a political figure of his scale."
Since November 1995, Imya was forced, through the cancellation of its contract with a Gomel printing house, to print in neighboring Lithuania. As of February 1998, Imya has resumed printing in Minsk at the private "Magic" printing press. Imya has also resumed distribution via the state postal distribution company, Soyuzpechat, which had also been suspended in November 1995. However, Soyuzpechat will only take 2,000 copies for state distribution through kiosks, claiming, according to Imya editor, Irina Khalip, that there is no demand for more copies, Yet, as Khalip told Human Rights Watch, the message from the newspaper vendors themselves suggests otherwise:
On July 7, 1997, Minsk ORT bureau chief Pavel Sheremet was stripped of his accreditation as a journalist in Belarus. This followed the removal of his special events accreditation on July 2.80 The Belarus Foreign Ministry made the following statement:
This loss of accreditation in practice meant that Sheremet, a Belarus citizen, was no longer granted a press pass to official press conferences or allowed access to the Minsk television center, the only facility in Belarus from which video materials can be transmitted abroad.82 However, he was still able to work for ORT and it was in this capacity that heapplied to the authorities on July 18, 1997 for permission to film a piece on the Belarusian-Lithuanian border. Unconfirmed reports state that Sheremet was in fact granted permission to film in the border region, but only in September of that year. Sheremet, his cameraman Dmitry Zavadsky and driver Yaroslav Ovchinnikov set off on July 22 to the Belarusian-Lithuanian border, not far from the border town of Oshmyany.83 There they filmed on and around the border zone and were detained by Belarusian border guards at the Kammeny Log crossing point. The guards fined the television crew for violating the border zone entrance regulations and then released them. On July 23, the ORT television news program Vremya (Time), featured a piece on smuggling along the Belarus-Lithuanian border, which included footage from Sheremet's trip. On July 26, Sheremet, Zavadsky, and Ovchinnikov were detained in Minsk and on July 28 were transferred to a KGB detention facility in Grodno region. On July 30, Sheremet and Zavadsky were charged under Article 80 of the criminal code - premeditated violation of the border by a group - which carries a maximum sentence of five years of imprisonment.84 The following day, Interfax reported that President Lukashenka alleged that Sheremet "has received remuneration from foreign special services."85
Meanwhile, on August 15, a film crew comprised of four ORT journalists - three Russian citizens (Anatoly Adamchuk, Aleksandr Oganov and Valeriy Astashkin) and Belarusian citizen Uladzimir Kostin - traveled to the Oshmyany district in order to show that the demarcation of the border between Belarus and Lithuania is unclear and that it is poorly guarded.88 Before reaching the border, however, the Belarusian State Border Guards detained them, allegedly for being in a border zone without the correct identifying documentation. While their identity was being established, the border guards placed them in the custody of the Interior Ministry. The film crew were fined 450,000 rubles each; however, the Interior Ministry detained the crew again on August 16 and the procuracy on August 18 charged them under Article 15 (2) and Article 80 (2) of the Belarusian criminal code with "attempted border violations."
In a televised statement on August 19 made while he was still in custody, Adamchuk "confessed" to a premeditated attempt to "violate the border," which he said he had carried out, under threat of dismissal from hissuperiors at ORT, and entreated the authorities "not to expel me from the republic...but let me work in Belarus to make amends for my evil deeds."89
Authorities released Adamchuk, Ostashkin, and Oganov on August 22, while Kostin was released on August 25. On August 18, Belarusian authorities forcibly took ORT journalist Vladimir Foshenko to the town of Lida for questioning.90 He was reportedly held incommunicado in a hotel until August 22, whereupon authorities deported him to Russia. However, on September 24, Foshenko returned to work in Belarus as an ORT correspondent, reportedly after having reached an agreement with President Lukashenka.91
Pavel Sheremet and Dmitri Zavadsky were tried for violations of Article 17 of the criminal code (conspiring with a group of people to commit a crime) and Article 80 (premeditated violation of the border by a group). Sheremet was additionally charged under Article 167 - exceeding his authority as a journalist resulting in damage to the public interest. He was released on October 8 on his own recognizance, pending trial.
The trial began on December 17, 1997 in the border town of Oshmyany. The choice of location for the trial, which had generated enormous interest in Belarus and Russia and had prompted the personal intervention of Russian President Boris Yeltsin, greatly limited coverage. First, the court room itself was clearly too small to hold all the interested parties, prompting the defense to apply, without success, to have the hearing moved to more spacious premises.92 Second, travel to the town of Oshmyany necessitated special permission from the authorities, as it is located in a designated border zone.
On January 28, 1998, the court pronounced Sheremet and Zavadsky guilty as charged and sentenced them to two and one and a half years of imprisonment respectively, suspended for one year.
The state chose to prosecute Sheremet and Zavadsky apparently because of the role they played in exposing the lack border demarcation,93 a subject of official sensitivity. This notion is supported by the timing of their arrest: whereas they were merely fined when caught in the border area, they were arrested and charged only after their film clips aired on television. Human Rights Watch further believes that the prior public accusations by the government of bias in Sheremet's reporting and the stripping of his accreditation, also indicate the political nature of the case.
71 Belapan news agency, May 5, 1998.
72 Human
Rights Watch interview with Ales' Lipau, Minsk, February 18, 1998.
73 The
alterations included exempting publications with a print-run of less than
300 issues from registering with the State Committee on the Press; in the
ban on defamation, substitution of a general reference to high officials
for a specific reference to the president; and reducing the maximum period
of suspension of media outlets in breach of the law from twelve to three
months.
74 For
further details on these cases please see "Crushing Civil Society," pp
23-25.
75 Belapan
news agency, Minsk, May 4, 1998.
76 Following
Svaboda's closure, the newspaper continued to appear on the Internet
- http://www/belarus.net/MassMedia/Newspaper/Svaboda/ - without evident
government interference. On January 16, 1998, a new newspaper, entitled
Naviny (The News), was launched by the same staff and funders of
Svaboda. The Belarusian Association of Journalists reported in the
January edition of their periodical, The Fourth Estate, that Naviny
received a warning from the State Committee on the Press on January 23,
1998 for reprinting the Svaboda logo on the front page.
77 Human
Rights Watch interview with Irina Khalip, Minsk, February 20, 1998.
78 The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs revoked NTV correspondent Aleksander Stupnikov's
accreditation on March 24, 1997. Human Rights Watch, "Crushing Civil Society,"
A Human Rights Watch Report, pp. 21-23.
79 Belapan
news agency, Minsk, March 13, 1998, and Interfax news agency, Moscow, March
17, 1998, both cited in WNC.
80 Human
Rights Watch, "Crushing Civil Society," pp. 22-23.
81 ITAR-TASS
news agency, Moscow, cited in WNC, July 9, 1997. See also, Human Rights
Watch, "Crushing Civil Society," pp. 11-17.
82 Interview
with Pavel Sheremet, radio station Ekho Moskvy (Moscow),
cited in WNC, July 11, 1997.
83 Mikhail
Pastukhov, "Sheremet and Zavadsky on Trial: Shame on Belarusian Justice,"
reprinted in The Fourth Estate, the bulletin of the Belarusian Association
of Journalists, January 1998. Pastukhov is a former constitutional court
judge who resigned in protest at the November 1996 referendum that amended
the constitution. During the trial of Sheremet, Pastukhov acted as Sheremet's
public defender. Pastukhov is currently the director of the Center for
Media Law and Practice at the Belarusian Association of Journalists based
in Minsk.
84 Interfax
news agency, Moscow, cited in WNC, July 30, 1997.
85 Interfax
news agency, Moscow, cited in WNC, July 31, 1997.
86 Minsk
radio, Minsk, cited in WNC, September 4, 1997.
87 Interfax
news agency, Moscow, cited in WNC, September 5, 1997.
88 This
is a matter of great official sensitivity not only because it facilitates
smuggling, but because there is no border between Belarus and Russia. Hence,
if Belarus' border are transparent, so then is Russia's western border.
89 Interfax
news agency, Moscow, cited in WNC, August 19, 1997.
90 Interfax
news agency, Moscow, cited in WNC, August 22, 1997.
91 Belapan
news agency, Minsk, cited in WNC, September 25, 1997.
92 Radio
Rossiya, Moscow, cited in WNC, December 22, 1997. One Western observer,
who attended the trial and requested anonymity, commented that they suspected
the authorities of filling the court room with local residents in order
to reduce yet further space for journalists and other observers of note.
This supposition is supported by Foreign Minister Antanovich's "recommendation,"
reported by Radio Rossiya also on December 22, that Belarusian and foreign
journalists not attend the trial to avoid putting pressure on the court.
93 One
Oshmyany resident explained local confusion over the trial, "We can't understand
what they're being tried for... [Locals cross the border] all the time.
We're all criminals." Moscow Times (Moscow), pp. 1-2, January 29,
1998.
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