Belarus Remains Worst Country for Journalists :: Charter'97 :: News

International Committee for the protection of journalists’ rights (CPJ) published in New-York its annual report on the crackdown on the freedom of speech worldwide. The text of report reads that in the year 2002 there significantly rose the number of detained journalists, as well as their killings. In all of the former Soviet Union’s territory the worst situation is observed in Belarus and Turkmenistan. In May last year CPJ blacklisted Belarus among top ten violators of the freedom of speech in the globe.

Radio Svaboda quotes CPJ coordinator for Europe and Central Asian Alex Lupis as saying the following in this connection:

- Turkmenistan remains a dreadful place for the journalists. We possess no data on whether there exists any independent journalism as such at all. Belarus, no doubt, is just as bad too. A few journalists there were incarcerated in Belarus for mere criticizing Alexander Lukashenko.

If you remember, Grodno journalists from “Pagonya” Pavel Mozheiko and Mikola Markevich, as well as the “Rabochy” editor-in-chief Viktor Ivashkevich of Minsk were all sentenced to enforced labor. The Committee in its report also draws the attention to the trial over a group of the former special services agents, charged with kidnapping and killing cameraman Dmitry Zavadsky. Although Zavadsky’s episode remains uninvestigated, the judiciary called investigation to a halt, despite protests by the victim’s family. Feel free to read the full text of report at www.cpj.org.