Welcoming release of Belarusian journalist Irina Khalip, OSCE media freedom representative calls for improvement of media freedom situation

VIENNA, 19 July 2013 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, welcomed today’s decision by a court in Minsk to lift the restrictions imposed on Belarusian journalist, Irina Khalip.

“I am relieved that Irina Khalip is no longer serving the sentence handed out to her in 2011. I followed this case from the beginning and raised it several times with the Belarusian authorities”, said Mijatović.

Khalip, a journalist for Novaya gazeta, received a two-year suspended sentence in 2011.

“I hope that similar penalty of another Belarusian journalist, Andrzej Poczobut, also sentenced in 2011, will be lifted as well and that no journalists face prosecution or harassment in the future,” added Mijatović.

Mijatović added that during her recent visit to Minsk the authorities expressed readiness to intensify dialogue and co-operation with her office on much needed improvement of the media freedom situation.