Background

In the first three months of 2005 the situation in the media field in Belarus continued to deteriorate. Having closed or otherwise destroyed most independent newspapers, the authorities have introduced almost total control over the media landscape. If in 2004 there were several independent newspapers to choose from in Minsk kiosks, in early 2005 there is only one nation-wide daily newspaper left - Narodnaya Volya, which also faces permanent pressure from the authorities. Belarusskaya Delovaya Gazeta, another major independent newspaper, is banned from being printed in Belarus, sold in state kiosks and distributed by subscription. As a result, it has to look for other channels of printing and distribution. All central electronic media is dominated by the state. Furthermore, the government has implemented the digital satellite broadcasting of "Belarus TV", aiming to increase its quality and outreach.

The few remaining independent local newspapers also face permanent pressure from local authorities. The state uses its vertical system of power - district executive committees - to exert both economic and administrative pressure on the independent media. Citing different pretexts, state printing facilities refuse to print non-governmental periodicals, while non-state printers have to do the same for fear of economic sanctions.

Independent newspapers have to struggle for advertising on an unequal playing field, since most companies don't dare to publish their ads in the independent media. Besides, the state-sponsored media can offer more competitive advertising rates.

Formally independent FM stations are losing their audience and advertising revenues after the introduction of the 75% local content requirement.
On March 10th, Miklos Haraszti, the OSCE Representative of Freedom of the Media, delivered a report on the situation in the Belarusian media field. Among other things, he analyzed the current situation with the Belarusian print and electronic media, internet editions as well as the Belarusian media legislation.

Monitoring developments in the media field

Belarus satellite TV began broadcasting in January 2005. "The work is carried out to include the channel into cable networks of nearby and distant foreign countries," - said Nina Raewskaya, the head of the Ministry of Information's Electronic Media Department. She added that Belarus TV signed an agreement with Russian channel TV Center to run a joint production of programs about Belarus. The programs will be included in TV Center broadcasts.
Since January 1st, the Ministry of Information has been monitoring FM music broadcasts to ensure that Belarusian music receives 75% of the national airplay. Ministry officials explained to the Belarusian Association of Journalists that FM monitoring is not a new thing. At the same time, since January 1st the monitoring also covers the compliance with the 75% provision. The Ministry reports violations to the Commission on TV and Radio Broadcasting that decides on penalties. At the same time, the officials of the Electronic Media Department said "so far there have been no loud cases." According to the department officers, the monitoring consists of a run-through of the broadcasts and requests for play-lists and print-outs of news programs when necessary.
On January 4th, a court in Minsk ordered the newspaper Pressball and its editor-in-chief Vladimir Berezhkov to pay Belarusian Minister of Finance Nikolay Korbut, who heads the Belarusian Association of Gymnastics, USD 15,000 and USD 5,000 respectively, in a decision regarding Korbut's claim for indemnity for moral damage. Mr. Berezhkov was indignant about the court decision and the amount of the penalty. He was confident that if the judge had satisfied his petition to ask the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Interpol and the Belarusian Association of Gymnastics for information, the reliability of the information published in Pressball would have been proved.
The article that provoked Mr. Korbut's claim was published on October 22, 2004. In particular, the official was irritated with the following front page headline: "Person searched by Interpol for participating in criminal grouping is the assistant for Belarusian Minister of Finance". The claimant considered this wording as "information intentionally intended to offend my assistants' and my honour, dignity and business reputation". Mr. Korbut demanded a retraction of the disseminated data and USD 5,000 in moral damages from Pressball journalist Sergey Versotsky and the newspaper's editor-in-chief Vladimir Berezhkov, as well as USD 25,000 from the newspaper's founder - Pressball Plus.
On January 5th, the Ministry of Information warned the editors of Pressball. It was the second time the newspaper had been warned for violating art.5 of the law on the press, which creates the grounds for judicial suspension of the newspaper's activity.
The warning was based on the January 5th article "Questions of Life and Death: An Open Letter to Alexander Lukashenko". The ministry claimed that the paper had published the documents of a legal case (in particular, the writ of Nikolay Korbut) without the judge's written authorization.
On March 11th, a court executor distrained the property of the Pressball Editor-in-Chief in order to pay 10 million rubles in moral compensation to Korbut, according to the previous verdict of the Central City District Court of Minsk. The independent publisher was found guilty of disseminating false and offensive information regarding a state official.
On April 8, 2004 the Ministry of Information warned Pressball for publishing a project called "Sasha and Sirozha", which, according to the registering agency, contained "vulgar and prohibited language and distorted the conventional norms of the Russian language," which is "an infringement on morals." The editors didn't appeal the warning but stopped the project.
In January 2005, the Grodno Executive Committee addressed state enterprises and city agencies with a recommendation to refrain from advertising in non-governmental newspapers. The newspaper's editors have a copy of the committee's letter that, in addition to the recommendation itself, contains a list of businesses that have been placing ads in non-governmental media. Among others, the list includes Grodno State University, a milk plant and a meat-packing factory. Uladzimir Amelka, the head of the committee's ideology department, told Natalya Makushina that the document aimed to support the government media and was simply a recommendation; businesses are free to choose the advertisement sources themselves.
The panel of judges on criminal cases on the Supreme Court of Belarus sentenced Yahor Rybakou, the ex-chairman of Belarusian State TV and Radio Company to 11 years of high security imprisonment and confiscated all his property. Rybakou won't be allowed to hold any high position for five years after his release from prison. The sentence was passed by the Supreme Court in Minsk on February 11, 2005. The court resolution was based on article 430, part 3 of the Belarusian Criminal Code (acceptance of a bribe by a person holding a responsible office). The court also ordered Rybakou to pay 212 million Belarusian rubles to the Belarusian State TV and Radio Company as well as court costs amounting to 21 million Belarusian rubles.
"During the 14 years of Belarus' independence the interference of the state into media activities has not diminished. In fact, it is on the rise,", stated Miklos Haraszti, the OSCE Representative on Media Freedom during his final briefing in Minsk on February 11th.
Haraszti said that he had met a number of state officials during his visit to Belarus. In particular, he had talks with Uladzimir Hancharyk, the Minister of Communications , Uladzimir Rusakievich, the Minister of Information, Yury Kulakouski, the head of the Chamber of Representatives Standing Committee on Inter-Ethnic relations and the Media and the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Haraszti also met with the ONT TV channel management staff and visited a number of state and non-governmental editorial offices. He also met the leaders of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (the "BAJ").
Haraszti feels that the press faces serious problems. Correspondingly, Belarus requires assistance. At the same time, the OSCE would like to share its experience with the Belarusian government.
Among the main problems, the OSCE Representative pointed to the deficient media legislation that has a "restrictive" character. He noted that nowadays Belarus is the only OSCE member state where a person can be imprisoned for offending the president.. He considers it unacceptable to suspend the media from functioning. In his opinion, such resolutions can be taken by the court only. Haraszti also expressed his regret that there isn't any nation-wide non-governmental broadcast media in the country. During his talk with the Minister of Information, the latter rejected the idea of founding a public service TV in Belarus.

Still, the European expert is convinced that these and many other problems can be solved "by means of cooperation". In particular, he offered Rusakievich the OSCE's assistance in the elaboration of the new media law. He considered it to be positive step that the Belarusian official didn't turn down the offer.
By February 15, 2005, every legal entity and individual entrepreneur selling periodicals had to submit precise output data regarding all mass media on sale to the corresponding district and city executive committees for further adjustment. The order doesn't concern the regional unitary enterprises of Belsayuzdruk and Belposhta. BAJ lawyers are afraid that this situation can lead to the significant reduction of independent press distributors in the country. "... Now the ideological authorities want to know who sells what. The entrepreneurs won't be allowed to sell periodicals without signed adjustments from the executive committees. Therefore, it is likely that a large number of them will simply refuse to present the periodicals for sale at all". Besides, some entrepreneurs and organizations are afraid they are likely to be obliged to sell Soviet Byellorussia and other state periodicals along with other newspapers.
In February Lukashenka noted the mounting Cold War-style pressure on Belarus from Western and Russian TV and radio stations, and urged Belarus' state-run electronic media to refute what he called biased coverage from abroad. The BelTA News Agency quoted him as saying, "And we should be ready for this, we will have to counter any pressure alone, as we have always done."
In a hard-hitting statement, the Belarusian leader lashed out at what he called "anti-Belarusian" channels in Russia for airing as many "biased and aggressive" broadcasts as Western networks. He predicted that the pressure would continue mounting ahead of the 2006 presidential election.
Lukashenka called on Belarus' government-controlled networks to "carry out explanatory work" rather than perform the function of a mere information source.
Minister of Information Rusakievich stated that the new media law makers had taken into consideration the world-wide experience of legal regulations in the media field. At the same time, he said, "there exists a precise procedure for adopting laws in this country that doesn't envisage their connection with international organizations."
He stated that during the media law elaboration, corresponding legislation from Russia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Ukraine, Moldova, the UK, the Netherlands, the USA, and Sweden as well as the international legal principles of media regulations had been analyzed. In his opinion, all these actions were "solely aimed at taking into account the best world experience." However, he noted that Belarus had peculiarities in its development that did not contradict the freedom of speech. Also, he emphasized that the new media law would fully conform to the Constitution of Belarus that "guarantees the freedom of information, the freedom of speech and the citizens' free access to information."
The Minister considered the state of political culture in the country to be insufficient for abolishing criminal liability for offending governmental officials' honor and dignity. He also disagreed with the statement that it was the journalist's responsibility to criticize the state.
On February 24th, the suspension of the Birzha Informacyi non-governmental newspaper ended. However, the periodical is facing publication difficulties, as the Hrodna Regional Printing House has refused to sign a printing agreement. A. Raubieckaya, the Printing House manager, attributed this to the temporary absence of a director, but said that one is to be appointed by the Hrodna Regional Executive Committee in the nearest future. He suggested that a secret order has been issued by the Regional Executive Committee to avoid signing any agreements with the non-governmental newspaper.
On February 28th, the Minsk Public Prosecutor's Office terminated a criminal case initiated against Harry Pahaniajla, deputy chairman of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee due to a lack of evidence. According to Pahaniajla, the investigator made this decision " by taking into consideration the absence of the legal perspective" of the criminal case. The lawyer says he has done his best "to overload the investigation with information and documents, which could prove his innocence". In December 2004, Mr. Pahaniajla submitted a petition to the General Public Prosecutor, asking that the criminal case be closed. The petition was accompanied by a number of documents supporting the veracity of his arguments. The General Public Prosecutor's Office re-addressed the petition to the Minsk Public Prosecutor's Office and ordered legal investigators to look into the documents.

On February 23rd, Aliaksei Pikarau, investigator of the Minsk City Public Prosecutor's Office, prolonged for one month the term of criminal investigations on the case. However, on February 28th he informed Pahaniajla that the case had been closed.

The criminal case against Pahaniajla was initiated according to article 367 part 2 of the Belarusian Criminal Code (casting aspersions on the President of Belarus, combined with airing faked accusations of the commission of a serious crime) in November 2004. It was based on the human rights activist's interview on the Swedish "TV-4" channel of August 18th. In the interview Pahaniajla said that he suspected that some Belarusian state VIPs, including President Lukashenka, were involved in the "disappearances" and assassinations of some Belarusian opposition leaders. The Belarusian customs officers confiscated video tapes of the interview when the "TV-4" journalist was leaving the country and passed them to the KGB. Later they were transferred to the Public Prosecutor's Office.

On February 26th, the Belarusian Council of Ministers passed regulation No. 209 "On Financing Periodicals in 2005". Accordingly, it was ordered to subsidize 32 periodical editions from the state budget funds. The list of state-supported periodicals includes Bielorusskaja Niva, Biarozka, Zviazda, Znamia Yunosti, Zorka, Narodnaja Gazieta, Pierechodnyj Vozrast and others.
The 2005 state budget has earmarked 12.7 billion Belarusian rubles for financing the press and publishers.
In March two Belarusian journalist teams were awarded Gerd Bucerius "Young Press of Eastern Europe" Memorial Prizes for 2005. The Prize was founded by the Zeit-Stiftung Foundation (Germany). It is presented to print periodicals for high quality and independent journalism.

The main prize of 40,000 Euros went to the BelaPAN news agency. 20,000 Euros were awarded to the staff of the Vitsebskiy Kurjer newspaper. Prize winners also included editorial teams from Georgia and Russia.
On March 3, 2005, the Volny Chas newspaper publisher and editor-in-chief Uladzimir Viarbovikau was summoned to the Tax Inspection Office of the Saviecki City District in Homiel. Aleh Miranovich, a state tax inspector, informed the publisher that he was being fined 500,000 Belarusian rubles (230 USD) for non-payment of VAT for his newspaper publishing in 2003. Viarbovikau tried to prove that his newspaper hadn't been published for a year and a half due to financial difficulties. In response, the tax inspector noted he could have fined the publisher as much as 1.5 million rubles.
Julia Darashkievich, the Nasha Niva newspaper photo correspondent has filed charges with the Hrodna Regional Public Prosecutor's Office and the chief of the Leninski City District Department of Internal Affairs in Hrodna. The journalist charges special police officers with detaining her during an entrepreneurs' meeting in Hrodna on March 10th. Darashkievich was taking photos during the demonstration. All of a sudden she was seized by two masked riot squad officers with night sticks. They led her to a minivan full of arrested private entrepreneurs. The journalist had an identity press-badge on her overcoat and immediately informed the policemen about her professional status. Consequently, they took her to the opposite side of Lenin Square and released her, but not before threatening her with physical punishment, should she dare re-approach the entrepreneurs.

The journalist charged that the police officers had impeded her in the implementation of her professional duties and in so doing were in flagrant violation of the Belarusian press law. Darashkievich has called on the special police officers to account for their illegal actions.
On March 11th, the sale and distribution of Miestnaya Gazeta was terminated, following instructions issued by the head of Vaukavysk District Executive Committee. Several Miestnaya Gazeta distributors were detained at Vaukavysk market on March 11th and 12th, although they had all of the required documents.
Siarhiej Niarouny, the Volny Horad newspaper editor-in-chief was summoned to the Krychau Inter-District Public Prosecutor's office in early March 2005. The publisher received a warning from the public prosecutor for "publishing articles, calling for the overthrow of the government as well as offending the President and the local authorities." The public prosecutor Mikalaj Rozancau informed the editor that the warning was based on an appeal submitted by the Krychau District Executive Committee chairman Ivan Prakopau. The public prosecutor refused to show or name the specific publications the newspaper publisher was blamed for.
In March, R. Tarasievich, the head of the Hlybokaye District Executive Committee sent instructions to all schools in the area. He urged all regional head masters to arrange a subscription campaign to state periodicals among the school teachers by March 20, 2005. The list of recommended official editions included a number of nation-wide periodicals - Sovietskaya Byelorussia, Narodnaya Gazeta, Respublika, Zviazda, Znamya Yunosti, regional newspapers - Viciebski Rabochy, Narodnoye Slovo as well as the district periodical Viesnik Hlybochchyny.. Each teacher was forced to subscribe to at least three official newspapers.
In March, Leanid Skindzier, the deputy head of the Ivacevichy District Executive Committee addressed Lidziya Calujka, the editor-in-chief of the Gazieta Dla Vas regional independent newspaper with a request to avoid mentioning the Ivacevichy district problems and news in the periodical. He suggested that the regional edition dwell on the neighboring districts instead. In Skindzier's words, "critical newspaper publications have a negative influence on the local authorities' reputation and mislead the local population as far as local ideological work is concerned." In Mr. Skindzier's opinion, the state-owned and state controlled local newspaper is the only periodical allowed to build up the public opinion in the area.
In March journalist Iryna Khalip received a writ from the Kastrychnicki City District Court of Minsk. According to the document, "The Russian America" Newspaper Editor Arkadz Mar had submitted a claim against her and urged her to retract two "incorrect" expressions concerning his personality which had appeared in Khalip's article. Mar had interviewed president Lukashenka nearly a month before. The US-located "Russian America" newspaper edited by Mar was going to publish the 12-page interview.
Khalip wrote an article about Mar's journalism experience. In particular, she figured out that only two issues of The Russian America had been published during the previous year. The issues contained interviews with the Turkmen and Kirghiz presidents. Mar urged Khalip to retract her expressions, blaming him for "running a business in the form of deceiving credulous people". Mar did not bring any financial charges against Khalip.
In late March Siarhej Niarouny, editor-in-chief of the Krychau-located Volny Horad non-governmental newspaper was summoned to the Krychau District Public Prosecutor's Office and asked to provide explanations regarding a distributed leaflet carrying his photo and calling for the public to go to Minsk and to support Klimau's protest of March 25th. Niarouny claimed that it was the first time he had seen the leaflet. However, he did say that his periodical had published materials on Klimau's initiatives. Niarouny considered the appearance of the leaflet to be pure "provocation". The editor-in-chief appealed to the Krychau District Public Prosecutor's Office with a request to clear up the situation.