Belarus Worse than Zimbabwe :: Charter'97 :: News

The 10th OSCE conference “OSCE’s Human Dimension” started in Warsaw. On September 21 the participants discussed the situation with the freedom of speech in the OSCE countries, including Belarus.

A special document disseminated by the International Helsinki Federation, gives details about persecution of mass media in Belarus, in particular, about repression against the newspaper “Narodnaya Volya” and regional newspapers whose access to information is blocked in different ways.

According to the human rights activists, the article in the Criminal Code of Belarus, according to which one can be imprisoned for criticism of the head of state, re-registration of newspapers and limited access to internet are great threats to the freedom of expression.

“Belarus has not made steps forwards like many European states, on the contrary, in many respects it has moved back. My organization follows the situation in Belarus, and we state that independent mass media are constantly assaulted. Besides, members of my organization, “Article-21”, were denied Belarusian visas. It speaks volumes. We can go even to Zimbabwe. Though we seriously criticize the authorities of this country, we have never been denied entry to Zimbabwe, but we cannot go to Belarus,” told one of the heads of the human rights organization “Article 21” Toni Mendel in his interview to Radio Svaboda.