Freedom House: Belarus ranked near North Korea and Eritrea in Freedom of the Press report

Belarus is among ten worst press freedom countries and territories in the world.

It is said in the Freedom of the Press 2015 report released by Freedom House, BelaPAN informs.

The worst-rated countries include Belarus, Iran, Cuba, Crimea (as a territory), North Korea, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Equatorial Guinea and Eritrea.

The authors of the report note that independent media in these countries are “either nonexistent or barely able to operate, the press acts as a mouthpiece for the regime, citizens’ access to unbiased information is severely limited, and dissent is crushed through imprisonment, torture, and other forms of repression”. As for Crimea, the peninsula became subject to Russian press laws in 2014, and “its media faced restrictive regulations and widespread violence”.

Pressure on independent journalists continues in Belarus, the report says, noting that more than 20 cases were opened against independent journalists in 2014 on accusations of working without accreditations and “illegal production and distribution of media products”.

The report informs about military journalist Aliaksandr Alesin, who was detained by the KGB on espionage accusations and later released with travel restrictions.

It is noted that the media legislation was amended in 2014, allowing the Ministry of Information of Belarus to block media outlets without court order if they have received two warnings in the past 12 months. Websites of non-state media, including charter97.org, Nasha Niva, BelaPAN, Belorusskie Novosti, Belorusski Partizan, Solidarnost, Zavtra Tvoey Strany and udf.by were temporarily blocked during the year.

According to the report, the government maintains a virtual monopoly on domestic broadcast media, and state-owned media are financed from the state budget.