Media Monitoring In Belarus 2004

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MEDIA MONITORING IN BELARUS: “PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION 2004 COVERAGE
IN THE BELARUSIAN MASS-MEDIA”

APPENDIX 4

Introdiction

Political background and media situation in Belarus

Monitoring results

Biased information and propaganda instead of voters education

Conclusions

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Appendix 4

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION VIOLATIONS DURING THE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION AND REFERENDUM

The results of the freedom of expression (FOE) monitoring conducted by FOE monitoring group attached to the Belarusian Association of Journalists indicated mass violations within the period of parliamentary elections and referendum (the chronicle of violations may be found at

http://www.baj.ru/vybar04/choice04.asp

The monitoring data brings one to a conclusion that

• The violations of speech freedom were most of all made by state agencies and officials of the Republic of Belarus;

• They were systematic;

• They were aimed at minimizing the dissemination of uncensored information among Belarusian citizens.

“Wiping” the country's informational space exposed a systematic character of the authorities' activity on media field. During eight months preceding the announcement of the elections to the Chamber of Representatives, the number of printed media registered in Belarus decreased by 160. It became a direct cause of the policy of legal and economic discrimination of non-governmental mass media. Since the beginning 2004, a number of independent printed media have been forced to print in Russian Federation, because Belarusian printers refused signing the agreements with them.

May 1, the state prohibited distributing the newspapers by subscription without having a proper license. Meanwhile, the agency responsible for licensing this activity is the Ministry of Communication having a media distribution monopolist Belposhta a part of its structure. By this time majority of independent companies and printed media distributed by alternative subscription failed to receive the license. Moreover, subscription to this media preceding and during the election campaign got disrupted. During the election campaign, a lot of the editors experienced problems with distributing the newspapers in retail. You may find more information on media distribution problems at http://www.baj.ru/vybar04/AnalyticalMonitoring-Eng_270904-101004.doc

Electronic media broadcasting in Belarus is being totally controlled by the state. The level of control over both state-owned and commercial TV and radio companies can be illustrated by the fact that Belarusian bands that played at the opposition's rally on July 21, 2004 were denied air.

Step by step, Belarusian authorities used to limit Belarusian citizens' access to independent information. In March 2004 the Ministry of Information published the Regulations “On Distribution of Printed Media Registered in Foreign Countries on the Territory of the Republic of Belarus.” According to the regulations, only the authority of the Ministry of Information allows the distribution of foreign printed editions.

At the same time, there took place some attempts to push away Russian electronic media from Belarusian informational space. Within two years the amount of Russian TV channels' broadcasting — not long ago, Russian stations dominated the air — decreased by 70%.

Shortly after the elections to the Chamber of Representatives were announced, Belarusian authorities postponed the consideration of the application by Russian State TV and Radio Company, which applied to open its representatives in Belarus, till an indefinite time. The employees of the channel's editing office in Belarus were deprived of accreditation. Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained that the channel “has numerously covered the events in Belarus in a biased way”, including the coverage of an unsanctioned rally July 21.

As the election campaign started, the violations of speech freedom gained a mass character. In the media field, the freedom of expression suffered the largest losses due to extrajudicial decisions by Ministry of Information to suspend the activity of some newspapers. During the elections, the ministry suspended the issuing of 12 non-governmental newspapers around all the country regions. These are “Novaya Gazeta Smorgoni” in Smorgon, “Regionalnaya Gazeta” in Molodechno, “Regionalnye Vadomosti” in Gorki, “Narodny Predprinimatel” in Novopolock, “Mestnaya Gazeta” in Volkovysk, all-national editions “Molodyozhny Prospect”, “Navinki”, “Vremya”, “Predprinimatelskaya Gazeta” and “Nedelya”, as well as purely commercial editions “Lyuboy Kapriz” in Mogilyov and “Hallo! Kuplyu, prodam, menyayu” in Baranavichy. The editions' total one-time circulation equaled to more than 100.000 copies. Since November the 1st, 2003 till July the 1st, 2004 the Ministry of Information had suspended the issuing of 25 editions. A legal analysis of the orders on suspension of the media's activity may be found at http://www.baj.ru/Vybar04/AnalyticalMonitoring-Eng_080804-070904.doc

August 2004, the publishing of the only independent daily “Narodnaya Vola” appeared under the threat of being about to stop. August 4, under the pretence of executing court decisions, a court officer forbid the director of “Chyrvonaya Zorka” publishers to print the newspaper and arrested the edition's newsprint stored at the publishing house. It was done despite the fact that the cost of the arrested newsprint has numerously exceeded the amount of the fine. In result, the issuing of two “Narodnaya Vola” numbers was disrupted. Only the editors' ability to find proper money and pay off the fine made it possible to resume the newspaper's issuing.

Among other facts, the pressure on independent press through publishing houses is worth mentioning. In few recorded cases, the directors of publishing houses were offering the editors of independent media to remove the articles critical to the authorities or the planned referendum from the newspaper's pages, to replace an article with a photo or to refuse from printing at all. Meanwhile, demanding the editors to adjust the announcements or articles in advance, as well as demanding them to remove some article or announcement from print considered a censorship, which is permitted by Belarusian law.

The monitoring service recorded a lot of cases, when the law-enforcement officers confiscated printed production. They were confiscating not only the leaflets of oppositional deputy candidates, anti-referendum agitation and non-registered editions but also properly registered mass media (such as “Vremya”, “Nedelya” and others), as well as a book by Pavel Sheremet and Svetlana Kalinkina “Accidental President” printed in Russia. In most cases, the distributors of printed editions were suspended and called to civil account. This was happening in spite of few resolutions of UN Committee on Human Rights, which considered such decisions and actions of Belarusian authorities illegal.

During the election and referendum campaigns in 2004, Belarusian legal norms on offending the President were used widely. In September, the leader of the republican entrepreneurs' strike Valery Levanewski and his colleague Alexandar Vasilyew were condemned in Grodno for publicly offending the President of the Republic of Belarus and committing a grave crime of power abuse (p.2, art.368 of the Criminal Code). The court considered the leaflet distributed in Hrodna on the eave of May the 1st offensive. Valery Levanewski and Alexandar Vasilyew were sentences two years of prison each.

The verdict to Valery Levanewski and Alexandar Vasilyew was announced the same day the President signed the order to hold the referendum and addressed the people asking them to allow him participating in future presidential elections. A negative reference on the referendum, made by the editor-in-chief of Grodno based newspaper “Birzha Informacii” Alena Rawbeckaya on the pages of her newspaper, created the grounds for instituting civil proceedings against her for defaming the President. Alena Rawbeckaya was fined 500 Euro.

On the grounds of being critical to the activity of the country leader and agitating against the question put on the referendum, oppositional parties' deputy candidates were denied registration or deprived of the already issued registration certificates. At the same time, these were the heads of central electoral committees themselves (most of them didn't have a degree in law), who assessed the lawfulness of statements about the country leader and his policy. Central Electoral Committee passed the pre-election articles by Maryna Bahdanovich, Alyaxandar Cynkevich and Aleh Volchak, which became the grounds for canceling the decisions to register their authors as deputy candidates, to the Prosecution. The Prosecution is considering, whether the agitation materials of the former deputy candidates contain the grounds for filing criminal cases on offence of the President of the Republic of Belarus and state officials.

One criminal case was already filed on similar grounds. After a number of oppositional politicians made a statement about the falsification of the referendum and election results being prepared, Minsk Prosecution instituted the proceedings based on the art.188 (“Defamation”) and art.367 (“Defaming the President of the Republic of Belarus”) to investigate “the distribution of wittingly false conjectures, offensive to the President of the Republic of Belarus and other officials, related ... to the republican referendum and elections”. The analysis of Belarusian legislature on defaming and offending the President may be found at http://www.baj.ru/Vybar04/AnalyticalMonitoring-Eng_11-171004.doc

Gross violations of freedom of expression continued on the day of elections, October 17. This day, about twelve o'clock the web-sites of “Charter97”, “Radio Liberty”, Human Rights Center “Spring 96”, United Civil Party and Civil Initiative “Partnerstva” were blocked. The same situation was observed in Belarus on September 9, 2001 — during the last presidential elections. On the night of October 17, the head of Russian Channel 1 special projects Pavel Sheremet was beaten and then arrested. From the special detention center, where the journalist was supposed to stay until the court sitting on his case, the journalist was transported to the ambulance. For more information on provocation against Pavel Sheremet, go to http://www.baj.ru/2004/Oct/z181004e.asp

The monitoring of freedom of speech violations and conflicts in mass media field in the period of Parliamentary election and Referendum in the Republic of Belarus exposed that within the whole period of these political campaigns the rights of the citizens of the Republic of Belarus for information and free expression of thoughts have been grossly violated. State agencies not only failed to ensure the freedom of thought and the right to receive complete and truthful information, as it is declared in the Constitution, but also often prevented the implementation of these rights.

Appendix 3

Media Monitoring in Belarus 2004