Over the past two years, more than 20 non-governmental newspapers have been shut down for various reasons. Among them are Pahonia and Rabochy, whose editors and a correspondent were sentenced to several months of "restricted freedom" to be served in special labour camps.
The three journalists were accused of libeling the president, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison under Article 367 of the Belarusian Criminal Code. There are two other articles in the Criminal Code that provide imprisonment for similar "crimes": Article 368, "Insult of the President", provides up to three years in prison; up to three years restricted freedom is given under Article 369, "Insult of a State Official". These articles, however, do not provide any clarification as to what can be regarded as an insult and makes impossible any criticism of the president and officials of any rank. The authorities tend to regard any critical remarks made in the press as insult or libel. It should be noted that the Belarusian Criminal Code contains other general articles dealing with libel (Article 188) and insult (Article 189), so apart from being in breach of internationally accepted norms, Articles 367, 368, 369 provide additional protection to the president and state officials. This in itself contradicts the principle of overall equality before the law guaranteed by Article 22 of the Belarusian Constitution, which states, "All shall be equal before the law and entitled without discrimination to equal protection of their rights and legitimate interests."
Viktar Ivashkievic, editor-in-chief of Rabochy, was charged with libelling (Art. 367) and offending (Art. 368) the President for publishing an article on government corruption prior to the presidential elections of 2001. The whole print run of the newspaper was seized, with not a single copy reaching one reader. Despite this, Ivashkevic was sentenced to two years forced labour and is currently serving his term in the Baranovichi labour camp. The term is due to expire on 16 December 2003, however, Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta reported on 8 October that Ivashkevic might be released on parole by the end of October.
Mikola Markievic, Pahonia's editor-in-chief, and Paval Mazheika, Pahonia's correspondent, were also accused of libelling the President in 2001 and sentenced to 18 months and one year of forced labour respectively. Both were released on parole in March 2003. Mazheika's term has now expired, while Markievic has around a hundred days left to serve. The journalists have made attempts at registering a new newspaper but with no success and have decided to continue with an online version of Pahonia. However, this may not last long, as a new draft law on the press pending adoption will lead to websites being considered as "media" and owners of online editions will have to register their websites with the Ministry of Information and obtain licenses, as in the case of printed media.
In general, it has become next to impossible to register new privately-owned newspapers and magazines, as President Lukashenko believes that access to too many sources of information makes it impossible for people to "tell lies from the truth" (1).
Forming state ideology has been declared a matter of primary importance for Belarus. Speaking at a seminar for top-level officials of the central and local government bodies in March 2003, Lukashenko said in particular, "I believe I ought to, perhaps, meet with representatives of the intellectuals who hold patriotic views. And the main focus should be on creative work - creation of works that would enter the treasure-trove of the present-day, independent Belarus. I am not going to dictate to whoever what to write. Most important, the works must be highly artistic. In that case, the issue of funding can be removed by itself, because the state is ready to pay world prices for works of the world quality level." (2) Earlier, in May 2002, in line with the president's approach toward ideology, Edvard Skobelev, editor of the newsletter published by the presidential administration, urged state-run literary magazines not to publish work by writers who criticized the government and called several of the country's well-known writers "politically retarded". Among them was Vasil Bykov, the nation's most renowned writer who died in summer 2003. This was accompanied by the forced reorganization of Belarusian literary magazines into a holding company. The reorganization was conducted without agreement of one of a co-founder of all these magazines, the Belarusian Union of Writers. Editors of literary magazines were fired, and new, pro-government but less qualified people stepped in, closing doors to dissident writers and leaving them no opportunity of having their books published in the country. The recent clampdown on freedom of expression has affected not only writers and journalists, but also scholars and scientists, most notably those who investigate the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe. In 2001, Professor Yury Bandazhevsky, former rector of the Gomel Medical Institute and author of numerous scientific publications, was sentenced to eight years in prison, reduced to five years, on charges of receiving bribes from students. The charges are widely believed to stem from his medical research work dealing with the effects of radio-active fall-out from the Chernobyl disaster on the local population. During the time spent in prison, Bandazhevsky's health has seriously deteriorated, and his wife Galina has had to quit her job in Gomel and move to Minsk to be closer to her husband and family. Bandazhevsky's lawyers launched a complaint against the verdict to the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights, which has already addressed the Belarusian government with the Bandazhevsky case. ______________________________________________________________________________Footnotes:
1 http://www.president.gov.by/rus/president/speech/2003/seminar
2 http://www.president.gov.by/eng/president/speech/2003/seminar Please contact ftw@pen.org if you have any questions.