Belarus journalists criticize Lukashenka's media crackdown (05/04/97)

Belarus journalists criticize Lukashenka's media crackdown

by Yarema A. Bachynsky
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

NEW YORK - The very existence of an independent media is inimical to the authoritarian government of Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. This was the conclusion of a press briefing at The Committee To Protect Journalists on April 16. At the afternoon event, the Lukashenka regime's moves to impose a virtual blockade on non-governmental media and its quashing of dissenting voices within official information structures were subjected to heavy criticism by four representatives of the Belarusian independent media.

Zhanna Litvina, the Miensk bureau chief for Radio Liberty and editor-in-chief of the recently closed Radio 101.2 FM, stated that Mr. Lukashenka's imposition of severe curbs on the independent press and broadcast media, both Belarusian and foreign, has created a "nation of zombies" and that the average citizen in her country is not able to objectively judge the performance of Mr. Lukashenka's government precisely due to the information blockade and censorship measures imposed since the president's election in 1994.

As an example of the effect that a lack of information choices has had on the way people vote, Ms. Litvina cited the results of the November 1996 referendum in which, among other things, a majority of Belarusians cast their ballots against requiring transparency of government budgets and against popular election of local government officials, allowing instead for their appointment by Mr. Lukashenka's regime.

Commenting on how the Lukashenka government has cracked down on foreign journalists, Ms. Litvina cited the case of Aleksandr Stupnikov, former Miensk bureau chief for NTV, the leading independent Russian television network. Mr. Stupnikov, a Russian citizen, was expelled from Belarus in late March after the Belarusian government on March 24 withdrew his accreditation after he covered the unsanctioned demonstrations by thousands of Miensk youth against the new Treaty on The Union of Belarus and the Russian Federation.

According to Ms. Litvina, Mr. Stupnikov reported that hundreds of people, among them many university students, had been arrested, tried and sentenced to short jail terms, without benefit of any due process, for taking part in such demonstrations. His reports included footage of demonstrators being clubbed and otherwise brutalized by out-of-control OMON (special forces) riot police.

Chiming in with Ms. Litvina's criticism, Olha Babak, editor and announcer at the since-closed Radio 101.2 FM, talked of a March 14 unsanctioned rally of 200 Miensk youth at which 150 parti-cipants, as well as 12 journalists, were detained. Many of the rally participants were sentenced to 10-day jail terms, which was not surprising, according to Ms. Babak, given the Lukashenka government's propensity for administrative detention.

The fact that the 12 journalists, all of whom possessed and showed accreditation to authorities, were detained for reporting on breaking news, is a sign of ever-increasing pressure on those reporters who cover events not officially sanctioned by the government, she said. One of the 12, Svitlana Kurts, was detained for two days without cause, and subjected to interrogation and harassment while in jail. She was later released, though no formal explanation for her detention was given.

Official media very conservative

Oleh Hruzdilovych, a political observer for the independent daily Svaboda, a newspaper recently subjected to harassment by the state tax authorities and sued last September by the State Committee for the Press for allegedly libeling Mr. Lukashenka and other officials, noted that an important reason for the success of Mr. Lukashenka's monopolization of state-run media is the near-total lack of exposure of government journalists, especially at the regional and local levels, to their colleagues abroad. Most of his colleagues in the government-run media, especially print outlets, have never traveled beyond Belarus and have never had the opportunity to cover international or even national (referring to Soviet) events from anything other than the narrowest and most localized perspectives, said Mr. Hruzdilovych.

On the rare occasion, continued Mr. Hruzdilovych, when a regional newspaper publishes articles even vaguely critical of Mr. Lukashenka and government policies, as the Brest Kuryier allegedly did on October 30, 1996, it is subject to pressure. In that newspaper's case, the regional procurator of the southwestern Belarusian city informed the publication that it was violating the press law for "inciting social intolerance" (Article 5 of the Law on the Press of the Republic of Belarus). Three such violations can lead to a newspaper's closing.

Independent publications hard hit

Alyaksandr Mykhalchuk, deputy chief editor of Belorusskaya Gazeta, formerly with Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta, was very brief in his presentation but emphasized the enormous pressure that private, non-government newspapers come under in Belarus today.

He asked those gathered to picture what it is like to have to print a newspaper in a neighboring country (as do Belarusskaya Gazeta, Nasha Nyva and a number of other newspapers), smuggle tens of thousands of issues (entire print runs) - past customs authorities who regularly confiscate such materials, and then struggle to find a distribution outlet within Belarus, as the vast majority of kiosks, fearing government crackdowns, will not carry independent newspapers and the post office is not allowed to accept subscription payments or deliver them.

According to The Committee to Protect Journalists, on March 18, the Council of Ministers of Belarus issued a decree, "restricting the circulation and distribution across the border [both into and out of Belarus] of any material deemed a 'threat to national security, rights and freedoms of individuals, health and morale of the population and environmental protection.'" This decree, as Mr. Mykhalchuk noted, has in mind both print and broadcast media and is yet another example of the difficulty of running an independent media outlet in Belarus.

Mr. Mykhalchuk and Ms. Litvina pointed out that the Lukashenka government displays a cynical attitude towards questions of press and political freedom. Ms. Litvina recalled Mr. Lukashenka' s press secretary Syarhei Tolkachau' s response to a question posed about the alleged unavailability of opposition newspapers in Miensk: "You can buy Svaboda [a newspaper often critical of Mr. Lukashenka's policies] in the kiosk right next to the president's house," he is to have said. Yet if this is true, it is not a result of government encouragement, said Ms. Litvina, questioning why Svaboda, Imya, Belaruski Rynak and Belarusskaya Gazeta have had their bank accounts frozen and been fined by the state tax authorities, as they did on August 19, 1996.

The Belarusian journalists gave numerous other examples of government harassment, censorship and legal action, including beatings of journalists and their spouses, and the firing of shots into Svaboda editor-in-chief Ihar Hermenchuk's house. Also, immediately after riots broke out in Miensk over the signing of the latest Belarus-Russia integration treaty, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry and the presidential administration issued statements on April 2-3 to the effect that the government could no longer guarantee the safety of journalists covering unauthorized demonstrations, that a review of press accreditations might affect certain journalists negatively and finally, that new regulations were being considered which would bar Belarusian citizens from working as correspondents for foreign news agencies.

Perhaps the irony of the present situation in Belarus can be best explained by a saying popular on Miensk streets today, said Mr. Hruzdilovych, namely that "The Belarusian authorities start the day reading the independent press."

Trials and tribulations of Radio 101.2 FM, independent broadcaster in Miensk

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