OSCE Media Representative concerned over sentencing of a Belarusian journalist, calls for repealing criminal libel laws

VIENNA, 17 September 2002 - Europe's top media watchdog, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Freimut Duve, has expressed his concern today about the sentencing of the Belarusian journalist, Viktor Ivashkevich, for allegedly insulting the country's president.

"I urge the Belarusian authorities to immediately cease its policy of criminal prosecution and intimidation of independent journalists, and to repeal the existing criminal laws on libel and defamation", Mr. Duve, said. "I call on the authorities to abide by the commitments to freedom of expression and freedom of the media that Belarus has subscribed to as an OSCE participating State".

Mr. Ivashkevich, the Editor-in-chief of the Belarusian independent newspaper, Rabochy, has been accused of insulting the Belarusian president during last year's presidential election campaign. He was sentenced to two years of "restricted freedom" yesterday.

"This is not the first case of journalists in Belarus facing criminal charges for allegedly defaming the President", Mr. Duve said. "On 24 June, two journalists from the Grodno-based independent newspaper, Pagonya, Nikolai Markevich and Pavel Mozheiko, were sentenced respectively to two and to two-and-a-half years of "restricted freedom" on the same charge."

Mr. Duve urged the Belarusian authorities to overturn the verdicts on the three journalists, emphasizing the alarming recurrence of criminal prosecution of journalists for their reporting on last year's presidential election campaign in Belarus. "This is absolutely unacceptable in an OSCE participating State," Mr. Duve said. "Criminal libel laws should be repealed. I would also like to stress again that heads of state should not receive undue protection from media reporting on their activities."