Events of 2012 in the eyes of the journalists

Such a conclusion drew the representatives of independent informational and analytical Internet Media during the special round table.

In the political sphere this year was notable for practically inconspicuous political parliamentary campaign. A little more attention was attached to the discussion of the possible tactics of the oppositional forces; notably, whether it should be boycott or participation in the House election. The topic of political prisoners was also mentioned in this connection.

As the representative of the Agency of Policy Expertise under Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies (BISS) Uladzimir Dunaeu mentioned, the topic of the political prisoners is rather controversial: “On the one hand, humanitarian context is rather understandable. And I believe that here no compromises are possible. But on the other hand, on should be aware of the fact that Belarus remains in sight of Europe only while we have political prisoners”.

Apart from this problem, the question of the consolidation of the political opposition remains unsolved. And here, despite the close attention to this question from the side of Mass Media, no appreciable progress was achieved during 2012. It is the consolidation inability that became one of the reasons of the final loss of trust to opposition from the side of the population, the participants of the discussion believe.

AT the same time, civil society made certain steps for consolidation this year, noted the representative of the EuroBelarus Information Service Andrei Aleksandrovich, taking dynamic development of the National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum as an example. The most vivid aspect of the National Platform work was the creation of the Public Bologna Committee on its basis, which prepared an alternative report on the situation in the Belarusan education system. Belarusan ecologists and human right activists were also very active this year. The work of the latter resulted in the appointment of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation in Belarus of the UN Council on human rights.

Talking about the main events in the cultural sphere, the representative of the Internet magazine “New Europe” Aliaksei Bratackin characterized the situation as “culture under siege”. He took the persecution of the authors of the research “Hrodnaznaustva” (Hrodna history) and “ARCHE” magazine, as well as the incident with the arrest of the artist Mikhail Gulin on the October Square in Minsk, who was taking pictures of the composition consisting in the many-colored geometrical figures as an example.

The representative of the Alternative Youth Platform (AYP) Mikhas Matusevich stated that the situation in the youth sphere can’t be named rich in bright events. However, they did take place. Thus, Mikhas Matusevich recalled the “teddy bear landing” and arrest of the Belarusan journalist and realtor in this connection. According to the representative of the A YP, last year the tendency of the youth abstraction from the political life of the country continued, though usually it is youth who is the most active participant of the political processes.

Comparatively broad was the coverage of the death penalty problem in the Belarusan Mass Media, which is connected with the sentence passed to Dzmitry Kanavalau and Uladzislau Kavaleu, according to the high-profile case of the explosion in the Minsk underground in the April of 2012. After these events sociologists marked rather unusual situation with the public opinion on this question: the supporters of the death penalty presented the majority for the first time in many years. Uladzimir Dunaeu links this sentiment with the loss of trust to the court system of Belarus from the side of the citizens. Moderator of the discussion Pauliuk Bykouski in his turn noted that currently Belarus witnesses a decrease in trust to any institutions at all, whether they are state or public-run; and to Mass Media, too.

International relations last year were marked by stagnation in the western direction as well as the growing involvement of Belarus in the Russian influence sphere. Aliaksei Bratackin noted that political influence of the eastern neighbor on the situation in Belarus is not limited to the usual economic questions, but intrudes into the historical politics. As an example he took the statement of the Russian Ambassador Aleksandr Surikov, who expressed his concern in the fact that the War of 1812 is not perceived as domestic one in Belarus.

Under the small number of events that absorbed common attention, Mass Media switched to the coverage of various social problems, noted Uladzimir Dunaeu. The questions of education, public health, housing and communal services, urban area come to be discussed much more actively. One of the successful examples is the subject of denial to include Belarus in the Bologna process. And as the representative of the Political Expertise Agency highlighted, during the discussion of this topic those aspects of the problem were raised that were given little attention even within Belarus before that – for instance, the question of forced labor among the students.