H.E. Aleksandr G. Lukashenko
President
Administration of the President
Minsk 220030 K Marx Street, 38
Republic of Belarus
Fax: (011.375.17.2) 26-10-06
Your Excellency:
The continuing efforts by the government of Belarus to stifle press freedom and freedom of expression have no place in a modern country.
Recent harsh anti-media actions by your government, which hearken back to an earlier highly repressive era, include the expulsion of Ukrainian freelance journalist, Mikhail Podoliak, the three-month suspension of the opposition weekly, Rabochaya Solidarnost, and the sentence imposed on Oksana Novikova for libeling Your Excellency.
It is horrifying to read reports that Belarusian security service (KGB) agents burst into Podoliak’s home in Minsk at
7 a.m. and gave him only 15 minutes to pack before they put him on a train to Odessa. Podoliak, deputy editor of the Minsk-based weekly, Vremya, authored several analytical articles that frequently criticized the political and economic policies of your government, especially those concerning relations with Russia.
According to an official KGB statement, Podoliak was expelled for violating a law that defines the rights of foreigners living in Belarus. The statement accused him of writing “slanderous fabrications” about the political situation in Belarus. Podoliak was given no advance warning of his deportation and no opportunity to appeal it, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists.
Publication of the weekly, Rabochaya Solidarnost, was suspended for three months allegedly for failing to update its registration details with authorities. Because one of the weekly’s founding organizations had severed links with the newspaper on March 12, 2004, the Belarus Labor Party (PBT), the newspaper’s co-founder, was required to update its registration within the following month. The PBT filed the necessary documents on March 19, but authorities responded to inquiries two months later saying that the application was still under consideration. PBT leader, Alexandre Bukhvostov, told Reporters Without Borders that the newspaper was the target of official hostility because it criticized the pro-government Federation of Belarus Trade Unions.
Oksana Novikova was convicted of libel and sentenced to two and a half years in a corrective labor facility. She was arrested at a Minsk subway station while distributing leaflets which listed unlawful acts allegedly committed by Your Excellency. According to Amnesty International, her conviction “is a further proof of Belarus’ total disregard for international human rights standard, and legitimate exercise of the right to freedom of expression.”
Your Excellency, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Belarus cannot continue to flagrantly violate international standards and still hope to take its rightful place among the nations of the world. As you know,
in May, the Council of Europe rejected Belarus’ application to renew its special status within the organization.
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We urge Your Excellency to take all necessary actions to insure that the actions of the Belarusian government are in accord with the country’s constitution, which guarantees freedom of the press and freedom of expression. We urge you to do everything possible so that your administration ceases violating these basic principles and rescinds the order expelling Mr. Podoliak, reverses the suspension of Rabochaya Solidarnost and vacates Novikova’s sentence.
Respectfully yours,
Kevin McDermott Norman A. Schorr
Co-chairmen, Freedom of the Press Committee
cc: Sergei Sidorsky
Prime Minister
Office of the Prime Minister
House of Government
Minsk 220010 Independence Square
Republic of Belarus
Fax: (011.375.17.2) 29-66-65
Mikhail Khvostov
Ambassador of Belarus to the U.S.A.
Embassy of the Republic of Belarus
1619 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20009
Fax: (202) 986-1805
Aleh Ivanov
Acting Permanent Representative
Permanent Mission of the Republic of Belarus
to the United Nations
136 East 67th Street
New York, NY 10021
Fax: (212) 734-4810
George A. Krol
U.S. Ambassador to Belarus
Embassy of the United States of America
46 Starovilenskaya Street
Minsk 220002
Belarus
Fax: (011.375.17.2) 34-78-53