Belarus
Independent Belarusian journalists face governmentPosted Apr 19 2008
Two journalists from Nasha Niva, an independent weekly, were harmed after attending a March 25 rally by opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko. The rally honored the 90th anniversary of the Belarussian People’s Republic. Andrei Lyankevich and Syamyon Pechanko were detained and beaten by police. Pechanko was charged with organizing the rally by the district court in Minsk and sentenced to 15 days in jail.
Raids of independent journalists’ homes in various Belarussian towns by the Belarussian Security Service have also occured, the Belarussian Assocation of Journalists reports. They were looking for “defamatory information” about the president by Polish-based broadcasters Belsat, Radio Raciya and European Radio,
from which they confiscated various media materials. The raids were related to a 2005 case that involved the publishing of satirical cartoons of the president on a pro-democracy Web site in Belarus.
It is a crime to “defame” the president in Belarus and can be punishable by law. This is one of the many obstacles independent journalists face when trying to publish their work in the country.