Situation with Freedom of Speech in Belarus Reported as Highly Critical in 2017

Aleh Aheyeu, Andrei Bas­tunets

— Jour­nal­ists were detained 101 times, while per­form­ing their pro­fes­sion­al duties in 2017. Also, there were reg­is­tered 103 cas­es, when jour­nal­ists were sub­ject­ed to admin­is­tra­tive lia­bil­i­ty, 69 cas­es, when jour­nal­ists were fined for ‘coop­er­a­tion with for­eign media with­out accred­i­ta­tion’ and 12 cas­es, which result­ed in arrests of our col­leagues, – not­ed the BAJ Chair­per­son Andrei Bas­tunets.

Accord­ing to A. Bas­tunets, there were reg­is­tered 197 cas­es of con­flicts between the offi­cial author­i­ties and jour­nal­ists in Belarus in 2017. The num­ber exceed­ed thrice the num­ber of such con­flicts dur­ing three pre­ced­ing years tak­en togeth­er. Thus, it can be stat­ed that the year of 2017 was one of the most cri­sis years in the field of free­dom of speech in Belarus.

— More­over, it shouldn’t be for­got­ten that a crim­i­nal case, which is close­ly linked to the right to free­dom of expres­sion, was filed in 2016, inves­ti­gat­ed dur­ing almost the whole year of 2017, and present­ly con­sid­ered in court, – A. Bas­tunets said. – The cas­es were ini­ti­at­ed against the authors, who col­lab­o­rat­ed with a num­ber of Russ­ian pub­li­ca­tions, includ­ing the Reg­num Web-site. We are close­ly mon­i­tor­ing the case, – added the Chair­per­son of Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists.

— Also, we are high­ly con­cerned about the fact that the author­i­ties are devel­op­ing fur­ther changes to the Belarus Mass Media law. And we do not even know what changes are in ques­tion. We sent an offi­cial let­ter of inquiry by reg­is­tered mail to the recent­ly appoint­ed Min­is­ter of Infor­ma­tion of Belarus on Octo­ber 10, 2017. How­ev­er, we haven’t received any reply to the let­ter so far, – told A. Bas­tunets.

A BAJ Board mem­ber and the Head of BAJ Legal Assis­tance Ser­vice Aleh Aheyeu not­ed that the BAJ lawyers were active­ly engaged in pro­vid­ing assis­tance to col­leagues in defense of their pro­fes­sion­al rights in 2017. Due to the com­mon efforts, it became pos­si­ble to stop pros­e­cu­tion of jour­nal­ists in 13 cas­es last year. Also, the lawyers con­sult­ed the BAJ mem­bers to pre­vent pos­si­ble cas­es of per­se­cu­tion for their work.

Accord­ing to A. Aheyeu, the BAJ lawyers helped their col­leagues to pre­pare a series of com­plaints to the UN Com­mit­tee on Human Rights, which are going to be con­sid­ered by the Com­mit­tee mem­bers in the near future. Also, there were pre­pared and sub­mit­ted appeals to the UN Spe­cial Rap­por­teur on the right to free­dom of opin­ion and expres­sion and the OSCE Rep­re­sen­ta­tive on Free­dom of the Media. Thus, we tried to use all legal and inter­na­tion­al tools avail­able to defend our col­leagues.

— As before, the main con­cern of BAJ is caused by end­less fines, imposed on jour­nal­ists under arti­cle 22.9 of Belarus Admin­is­tra­tive Code. At the present moment of time the Belaru­sian author­i­ties con­duct all-out per­se­cu­tion of free­lance jour­nal­ists, who coop­er­ate with for­eign media. Tri­als take place prac­ti­cal­ly every week. And we can­not keep silent in this sit­u­a­tion, — said the BAJ Chair­per­son.

- In addi­tion to all oth­er let­ters and appeals, the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists has pre­pared an appeal to the Con­sti­tu­tion­al Court of Belarus with a request to oblige the law­mak­ers to address the gaps in the leg­is­la­tion that allow fin­ing jour­nal­ists for the things they can­not be pros­e­cut­ed for. Actu­al­ly, the pros­e­cu­tion of jour­nal­ists is not envis­aged in arti­cle 22.9 of Belarus Code ‘On Admin­is­tra­tive Offens­es’. We are going to sub­mit the appeal togeth­er with the Belaru­sian Helsin­ki Com­mit­tee in the com­ing days, — added Andrei Bas­tunets.