International pressure on Belarus government to improve press freedom

New joint report from a group of international press freedom and media support organisations calls for reforms and the removal of restrictions on media in Belarus

The report “For Free and Fair Media in Belarus” will today be presented to the Swedish EU Presidency in Stockholm in the run-up to the EU’s decision in November on whether or not to continue the partial suspension of sanctions against Belarus.

The report provides an overview of the current media situation in the country and is the result of a joint fact-finding mission to Belarus in September 2009 where delegates representing international media support and freedom of expression organisations met with media and the Belarus authorities to discuss press freedom and the media situation.

According to the report, the Belarusian media environment is in dire need of reform. Despite symbolic gestures on the part of the authorities, Belarus continues to fall short of meeting international standards.

Thomas Hughes, Deputy Director of International Media Support, said:

– The media in Belarus cannot work freely under the current restrictive circumstances and fulfill its role as a watchdog of those in power, promoting transparency in public life.  Our aim with this report is to ensure that the European Union insists that the Belarus government carries out a genuine and vigorous reform of the regulation of media to establish press freedom. Press freedom must remain at the heart of the EU’s human rights dialogue with the Belarusian government, he emphasises.

Findings in the report show that authorities make use of a number of repressive provisions that can be used to silence critical, oppositional or alternative voices. So-called governmental ideological departments around the country control the media’s access to public information. A new media law introduced in 2008 allows state prosecutors to close news outlets if content is deemed to be “a threat to the interests of the state.

Other obstacles to free media include unequal economic conditions between state and non-state media, state-controlled subscription and distribution systems which limit access for non-state media and non-transparent allocations of broadcast licenses and frequencies. Restrictions on accreditation of local and foreign media are further obstacles to a free media environment.

The mission group hopes that the report will contribute to the ongoing EU-Belarus Human Rights Dialogue and help the EU make an informed decision on whether or not to continue to uphold the partial suspension of sanctions which were initially imposed on Belarus due to its negligent human rights track-record.

The organisations that contributed to the report include:

Article 19, Civil Rights Defenders, Danish Union of Journalists, Index on Censorship, International/European Federation of Journalists, International Publishers’ Association, International Pen, International Press Institute, Open Society Institute, PressNow, Reporters Sans Frontieres, World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, and International Media Support (IMS).

Read the report here. To read the joint mission statement about media in Belarus issued in September 2009, click here.