Who Pressurizes “Narodnaya Volya”? :: Charter'97 :: News

Freimut Duve, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, has sent a letter to the head of the Ministry For Foreign Affairs Syarhei Martynaw, where he expressed his utter concern about “actions against the largest independent newspaper of the country, the “Narodnaya Volya”, which had been taken in Minsk”.

Informing Martynaw on the court trial initiated against the newspaper by Yahor Rybakow, chairman of the Belarusian state TV and Radio company, the OSCE expert underlines: “Even though no new facts were disclosed in appeal of Rybakow to Minsk city court, the latter decided to meet a claim of Rybakow and increase the amount of the claim. The most distressing aspect in Rybakow’s actions,” – Mr. Duve observed, “is his intention to bring suits against other independent mass media in the future”.

In the conclusion of his dispatch Freimut Duve informs Mr. Martynaw on the outrageous incident of removal of advertising posters of the “Narodnaya Volya” in metro in Minsk by order of Minsk executive committee officials. “The reason why the posters had been removed,” Mr. Duve wrote, “is allegedly the absence of the full name of the newspaper on them. I have seen that poster of the “Narodnaya Volya” and testify that it is not true. This decision by your government is viewed by me as another negative step, which in Maastricht was called by US Secretary of State Collin Powell “a systematic campaign against independent mass media in Belarus”.