Belarus strips journalists’ rights as election looms

23 Mar 10 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized

Belarus’s Supreme Court has stripped the Belarusian Association of Journalist’s (BAJ) ability to offer protection to journalists who are not officially authorised, such as opposition newspapers, websites and foreign news outlets.These journalists could now face 15 days in jail. BAJ president Zhanna Litvina said yesterday that this will discourage independent media coverage in the run-up to the elections. This comes a week after Charter97, an opposition website and are a nominee for this year’s Index On Censorship Freedom of Expression awards had its offices raided and its head of press beaten.

Ukrainian editor on trial for doubting 1930s genocide

15 Feb 10 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized

Sergei Shvedko, chief editor of the Rodnoye Priyapovye, is to go on trial for expressing doubts that the Holodomor — the 1930s famine in which millions of Ukranian starved to death because of  the policies of Joseph Stalin  — was genocide aimed against the Ukrainian people. Former President Yushchenko’s “Our Ukraine” party bought about the legal action claiming Shvedko denigrated Ukrainians’ dignity, dishonoured of the memory of the famine’s victims and denied the famine was genocide. Holodomor denial outlawed in Ukraine.

Belarusian police raid Polish cultural centre and arrest activist

11 Feb 10 | Index Index, minipost

Police have seized a Polish cultural centre in the town of Ivyanets outside Minsk. An activist who was travelling to the centre has also been detained. President Lukashenko claimed in 2005 the organisation responsible for the centre was trying to destabilise his regime and set up a government-approved alternative. Both the EU and the US have condemned the actions. There are around 400,000 Poles in Belarus. Belarus has also recently detained 20 activists demonstrating in support of political prisoners.