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Oslo: The Human Rights House Foundation and Norwegian P.E.N. have condemned the decision by the Belarusian state-owned newspaper distributor Belposhta to cease distribution of privately-owned newspapers. This is a new blow for the independent Belarusian press which has already been under increasing pressure recently. Read the letter below. (24-NOV-05)
 

The less time before the Presidential elections, the more active steps the authorities are taking to mop up the information space of Republic of Belarus. At the end of this week the Belarusian electorate lost a few more sources of uncensored information.The process of “mopping up” non-governmental media in the Republic of Belarus is coming to an end.(23-NOV-05)

Adrian Severin, United Nations human rights envoy urged Belarusian authorities to investigate the murders of the journalists Vieranika Charkasava, right, and Vasil Hrodnikau and end “systematic harassment and persecution” of non-state media. He also called on authorities to ensure respect for the right to freedom of opinion and expression. (14-NOV-05)
 

“The authorities didn’t miss the opportunity to mislead the international community”, — that’s how Zinaida Hanchar, wife of the kidnapped politician Viktar Hanchar, commented on the statement of Belarusian MPs made at the 113th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva. As a result of Mr. Salauiou’s statement about the “resumption of Hanchar’s case” the wife of the missing politician applied to IPU President Pier Ferdinando Casini. (17-NOV-05)

Monopolization of the informational field in the Republic of Belarus is going on. The authorities use all possible means to close the remaining few independent information sources. In 2006 three independent newspapers will lose subscription. (10-NOV-05)

The pressure against the independent media in the Republic of Belarus increases before the presidential elections due to take place in six months. – We are rudely pushed out of the legal information space into underground and “non-traditional” forms of mass-media activity, says Zhanna Litvina from the Belarusian Association of Journalists. (05-NOV-05)
 

“The state guarantees the right to choose the language of education and upbringing in conformity with the law”. In the case this Constitution article was really respected in real life, most probably the agenda of the assembly of Frantsishak Skaryna Belarusian Language Society (the largest public NGO dealing with defense of national values) that took place on 30 October would have sounded like “Success and progress in development of Belarusian, the state language” and the authorities wouldn’t have twice refused to provide the room for this event. (2-NOV-05)

The complicated situation and the permanent pressure exerted by the authorities on the civil sector of Republic of Belarus are frequent topics for both the country’s society and the international community. But what happened the other day staggered even some of the most sophisticated human rights activist and representatives of other NGOs in the Republic of Belarus. In the night of 24 October a window of the office of Zhodzina-based regional branch of the Human Rights Center Viasna came under gunfire. (28-OCT-05)

The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC) are gravely concerned by continuing threats against the Committee, in spite of an earlier court decision that cleared the group and its leaders of charges of tax evasion. (24-OCT-05)