Nikolai Markevich: Consolidation and Solidarity Will Save Journalists :: Charter'97 :: News

In order to confront the threat of complete annihilation, Belarusian mass media must join their efforts, said in an interview to Charter’s press-center the editor of the closed newspaper “Pagonya” Nikolai Markevich, sentenced to 1,5 years of freedom restriction for alleged libeling the incumbent. “The latest situation developments manifest that the authorities can deal with the whole Belarusian independent press one by one. Consolidation and solidarity alone can save situation,” – deems the journalist, whose sentence was changed for the softer on March 4. The remaining time he will work in his home-town Grodno and donate 15% of his salary to the state.

- Why do you think the authorities determined to soften the verdict?

- They never determined anything. In fact, they’d like me to rot there in custody. Everything was determined by the formula procedure, envisaged by the Penal Code. After I served the third of my sentence, I had the right to get my verdict changed given my behavior was adequate. Local law-enforcers were also happy to get rid of their headache. I was almost visited by my colleagues, diplomats, human rights defenders. I even got an impression that my custodians themselves became victims of my sentence.

- You served six years of enforced labor. How do you evaluate the level of freedom of speech in the country after that?

- In my view it’s tragic. The situation is extremely tough. And not just because the government wages a war against the freedom of speech. It is also tragic that the society itself and especially its elite don’t know what the freedom of expression is all about. Even the political parties’ leaders are indifferent to it. There’s no organized resistance as such to the state’s crackdown on the freedom of speech. The Belarusian Association of Journalists alone, despite its desperate efforts, is unable to change the general picture.

- Don’t you think that our journalists lack solidarity in fighting for their rights?

- If you mean “Pagonya” and me, only the solidarity and encouragement of my colleagues enabled us to survive under the tremendous pressure, which we undergo over the past two years. I am so grateful to all of them, especially my friends from regional newspapers “Gazeta Slonimskaya”, “Intex-press”, “Regionalnaya Gazeta”, “Inform-progulka” and many others. However, I in no wise mean all Belarusian journalists.

- How do the independent mass media can oppose the threat of complete annihilation?

- Naïve as it sounds, but we got to unite efforts in protecting ourselves. The latest situation developments manifest that the authorities can deal with the whole Belarusian independent press one by one. Consolidation and solidarity alone can save situation

- What are you planning to do now? Continue your journalistic career?

- In the near future I will do my best to register new edition. “Pagonya’s” niche isn’t occupied yet. The country needs some periodical instead. At it will definitely appear. If I found time in Osipovichi colony to write essays, I will surely find it at liberty.