PACE subcommittee set to organize conference on media situation in Belarus

The media subcommittee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), at its meeting in Strasbourg on January 24, decided to organize an international conference on the situation regarding Belarus’ independent media.

As Volha Stuzhynskaya, head of the Brussels-based Office for a Democratic Belarus, told BelaPAN, the proposal was backed by Miklos Haraszti, the OSCE representative on freedom of the media.

The conference is expected to focus on a media bill that the Belarusian government plans to push through the legislature.

Belarusian government officials, reporters and human rights defenders will be invited to the event scheduled for May. The venue has not been named so far.

According to Ms. Stuzhynskaya, the conference may provide “an excellent opportunity to discuss the new draft media law with those who have sponsored it and those for whom it has been written.”

The conference will allow international experts to examine the bill and find whether it meets universally recognized standards, something that Belarus’ civil society and independent media have long insisted on.

The situation in Belarus has been under discussion at an ongoing PACE session.

Andrea Rigoni, PACE’s special rapporteur on Belarus, delivered a report at a meeting of the organization’s Political Affairs Committee earlier this week.