The right for information: de facto and de jure

The Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, article 34 guarantees the “citizens of the Republic of Belarus the right to receive, store and disseminate complete, reliable and timely information of the activities of state bodies and public associations, on political, economic, cultural and international life, and on the state of the environment”.

Lilia Ananich: “It is a normal state function to control the Media”

Belarusian officials are convinced that there is freedom of the Media in Belarus. Yet in 1994 in the course of his first press conference after Presidential elections Aleksandr Lukashenko said that “from this day all journalists may consider themselves free”. However later the Head of the country publicly divided all journalists into “fair and not fair”.

The First Deputy Minister of Information Lilia Ananich, while assessing the new draft law on the Media said that “there is full freedom of the Media in Belarus… within the framework of the Law on the Media”. “To control the Media and to monitor that all worked within the legal framework is a typical function of the state”.

De jure the freedom of the Media is guaranteed by the Law. There are over 1300 registered print media in Belarus and two thirds of them are non-state, and this ratio is maintained admits Mrs. Lilia Ananich. According to the Minister of Information Uladzimir Rusakevich, “the number of newspapers that are issued and distributed in Belarus is virtually the highest in Europe per person”.

Governmental and non-governmental Media: unequal conditions

In the mean time the state and non-state media is in the unequal conditions. First of all, journalists from the independent media have hard times receiving official information from the officials of the state bodies. There is a ban for officials of all ranks to provide with information without a permission of the higher level authority. In the best case, the press services are asking to address one’s requests in a written form and promise to give a reply within the time frame stipulated in the law (30 days). It is impossible to work efficiently in these conditions.

The State owned media receives substantial financial resources from the state budget. The Minister of Information said that “around 5 billion a year is allocated from the state budget to finance the print media”.

The official media is located in well-equipped state administrative buildings (in Minsk they have huge complexes, for instance, the Printing House, Belteleradiocompany). Non-state media is forced to rent poor quality premises at a very high cost. Moreover, they face problems regularly, i.e. the landlords under pressure of local authorities cancel rental agreements as it recently happened with “Vitebsk Kurier” and “Gazeta Slonimskaya”.

Various tariffs, huge fines

There are differences in tariffs for printing for state and non-state media (naturally, not for the benefit of non-state media). In addition to that , some non-state media is forced to be printed outside the country (newspaper “Tovarishch”, Krichev “Volny Horad” are still printed in Smolensk and only a month ago “Narodnaya Volya” was allowed to be printed in Minsk. The tariffs for distribution of state and non-state media vary as well by the de-facto monopoly “Belpost” and “Belsayuzdruk”. Also in 2006 many of the non-state media had their contracts for distribution cancelled by “Belpost” and “Belsayuzdruk”. “Narodnaya Volya”, “Nasha Niva”, “Tovarisch” and many regional newspapers were forced to organize their own distribution services. People that were selling non-state newspapers in the underground passages and markets were frequently detained by the authorities and fined for illegal trade.

What is allowed in Minsk is not allowed in Glybokaye

Regardless of the fact that in the beginning of December “Nasha Niva” and “Narodnaya Volya” appeared in the newspaper kiosks and in the subscription catalogues, the situation in the regions has not changed. A Chief editor and a publisher of the independent weekly “Volnaye Glybokaye” Uladzimir Skarabatun yet in the end of September addressed the Head of Glybokaye post office with a request to include the weekly into the state distribution network. In a telephone conversation the head of the Glybokaye post office said that he was not personally against the inclusion of the newspaper into the subscription catalogue of “Belpost” due to the fact that prior agreement with the editor’s office was quite beneficial for the post office. However the head of the Glybokaye post office could not make such decision without prior consultations with the oblast authorities. The latter said that it will not accept the oppositional newspaper.

The situation is more complicated with the independent electronic media. Radio “Racia” and “The European Radio for Belarus”, a satellite channel “Belsat” are located and broadcast from the territory of the neighbouring county – Poland. Journalists of these Medium have no accreditation in Belarus.

“The Law on the Media does not confirm with the OSCE standards”

Starting from 9 February 2009 the new Law on the Media will enter into the legal force, it was criticized for instance by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Miklosz Harasti, a special raporteur on Belarus of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Andrea Regoni, International Federation of Journalists, “Article 19”, “Reporters without Borders” and other organizations. “The new law of Belarus on the Media does not comply with the OSCE standards”, said the Head of the OSCE Office in Minsk Ambassador Hans-Jochen Schmidt.

A BAJ lawyer Andrey Bastunets listed several repressive clauses:

“Firstly, the requirement of re-registration of the media in case of change of its legal address. Secondly, a newspaper could be closed down even after a single violation following a request from the Ministry of Information or the Prosecutor Office. In this case the list of violations that could lead to the closure of a newspaper is open. Before it was limited to the article 5 of the law on the Media.

Thirdly, the possibility of non-application of liability of the Editorial office for re-printing or quoting the informational agencies is limited.

Fourthly, the attempt to regulate the Internet. In this case this right by law is given to the government, i.e. to the secondary legislation. De facto internet resources are viewed as Media”.

Accreditation after permission of the officials of the Foreign Ministry

Substantial changes were introduced into the institute of accreditation. The article 1 of the Draft Law describes accreditation as “providing a journalist with a right to inform about events that are organized by the state bodies”. The procedure of accreditation of journalists is identified by the state bodies (article 35 of the Law on the Media). The Law contains a strict ban on “performing professional duties by journalists of foreign media in the territory of the Republic of Belarus without accreditation”. The Deputy Chairman of BAJ Andrey Bastunets explains that “there were limitations before. However they existed at the level of the Regulation of the Council of Ministers. Now it is stated in the Law that journalists of the foreign Media are not allowed to work without accreditation issued by the Belarusian Foreign Ministry. This is a violation of the right to receive and to disseminate information that is provided in the article 19 of the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights, where it says that everyone has a right to disseminate information irregardless of the state boundaries. Here it simply becomes dependant on a decision of the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: whether to grant accreditation to one or another journalist”.

One of the odd articles is the article 37 “Information of the limited access”. It lists all such information that is closed with a reference to other information that may be contained in “legislative acts of the Republic of Belarus”. Therefore the Law is of two ends, as they say, turn it the way you want…”

Ludmila Korsak