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  • Belarusian journalists win action against Belarus

    The UN Human Rights Committee considered a complaint of four Belarusian journalists and found Belarus guilty of violating their right to seek and impart information, enshrined in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

    Some time ago, Tat­siana Smotk­i­na, Dzmit­ry Lupach (assist­ed by human rights defend­er Pavel Lev­in­au), Tama­ra Schapetk­i­na, and Larysa Schyrako­va (assist­ed by human rights defend­er Leanid Sudalen­ka) filed a com­plaint with the UN Human Rights Com­mit­tee.

    They claimed that the rights of jour­nal­ists to free­dom of expres­sion are vio­lat­ed in Belarus. The coun­try pros­e­cut­ed these jour­nal­ists and imposed admin­is­tra­tive fines on all of them for alleged­ly dis­trib­ut­ing media prod­ucts with­out prop­er accred­i­ta­tion.

    On 14 March 2023, the Com­mit­tee con­sid­ered their com­plaints on the mer­its.

    The Com­mit­tee not­ed that part 3 of Arti­cle 19 of the Covenant allows restric­tions to free­dom of expres­sion, includ­ing free­dom of speech in the media and the dis­sem­i­na­tion of infor­ma­tion and ideas, only inso­far as pro­vid­ed by law and only when nec­es­sary for respect of the rights or rep­u­ta­tions of oth­ers; or to pro­tect nation­al secu­ri­ty or pub­lic order, or pub­lic health or morals.

    Any restric­tion on free­dom of expres­sion must not be exces­sive, that is, it must be the least intru­sive instru­ment amongst those which might achieve their pro­tec­tive func­tion, and pro­por­tion­ate to the inter­ests to be pro­tect­ed.

    The Com­mit­tee sug­gest­ed that Belarus demon­strate that the restric­tions on the rights of jour­nal­ists under Arti­cle 19 of the Covenant were nec­es­sary and pro­por­tion­ate. The response from the Belaru­sian author­i­ties read that all jour­nal­ists alleged­ly vio­lat­ed the Belaru­sian Law on Mass Media and worked with­out press cre­den­tials.

    The Com­mit­tee not­ed that in this case the appli­cants were sub­ject­ed to admin­is­tra­tive penal­ties: large fines under the Law on Mass Media, which entails a ban on jour­nal­is­tic activ­i­ties in the ter­ri­to­ry of Belarus involv­ing work for for­eign media with­out pos­sess­ing press cre­den­tials as a for­eign media rep­re­sen­ta­tive.

    In this regard, the Human Rights Com­mit­tee refers to Arti­cle 34 of the Con­sti­tu­tion of Belarus on free­dom of opin­ion and expres­sion and stat­ed that nation­al sys­tems of reg­is­tra­tion or licens­ing of jour­nal­ists are incom­pat­i­ble with Arti­cle 19(3) of the Covenant.

    Lim­it­ed press cre­den­tials-acquir­ing schemes are per­mis­si­ble only if it is nec­es­sary to pro­vide jour­nal­ists with priv­i­leged access to cer­tain events.

    The Com­mit­tee notes that the penal­ties imposed by the Belaru­sian author­i­ties on the jour­nal­ists were based on domes­tic law. How­ev­er, nei­ther the State par­ty nor the domes­tic courts have explained how such restric­tions were jus­ti­fied in terms of neces­si­ty and pro­por­tion­al­i­ty, as required under Arti­cle 19, para­graph 3 of the Covenant, and whether the penal­ties (i.e. admin­is­tra­tive fines), even if based on law, were nec­es­sary and pro­por­tion­ate and met any of the legit­i­mate aims out­lined in that pro­vi­sion. It there­fore con­cludes that the appli­cants’ rights under Arti­cle 19, para­graph 2, of the Covenant have been vio­lat­ed.

    Belarus is there­fore under an oblig­a­tion to take appro­pri­ate mea­sures to com­pen­sate the jour­nal­ists for the fines and oth­er legal costs incurred by the them in con­nec­tion with the nation­al pro­ceed­ings. The State is also under an oblig­a­tion to take all nec­es­sary mea­sures to pre­vent sim­i­lar vio­la­tions from occur­ring in the future. In this regard, the Com­mit­tee notes that it has con­sid­ered sim­i­lar com­plaints con­cern­ing the same laws and prac­tices in the State par­ty, and there­fore Belarus should review its legal frame­work, in par­tic­u­lar the Law on Mass Media, fol­low­ing its oblig­a­tion under Arti­cle 2 of the Covenant to ensure the full enjoy­ment of the rights out­lined in arti­cle 19 of the Covenant.

    The Human Rights Com­mit­tee expects to receive infor­ma­tion from Belarus on the mea­sures tak­en with­in 180 days.

    Read more:

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    “I see contradictory attitudes towards Belarusians.” Hot topics at Kyiv press conference

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