Freelance Journalist Complains to UN Human Rights Committee

On March 12, the Homieĺ Cen­traĺny Dis­trict Court sen­tenced Larysa Shchyrako­va, along with Vik­tar Kaza­chok, to a heavy fine for coop­er­at­ing with the Pol­ish TV chan­nel “Bel­sat”.

“In Belarus, I have gone through all the stages of judi­cial pro­tec­tion and nev­er suc­ceed­ed. So I used the only inter­na­tion­al mech­a­nism to pro­tect my rights,” said the jour­nal­ist.

Lawyer Leanid Sudalen­ka, who rep­re­sent­ed the jour­nal­ist in court, said that the case high­light­ed a num­ber of con­tra­dic­tions of the nation­al leg­is­la­tion to the country’s inter­na­tion­al treaties.

“The Inter­na­tion­al Covenant on Civ­il and Polit­i­cal Rights guar­an­tees every­one the free­dom to gath­er and dis­sem­i­nate infor­ma­tion, the Media Law, how­ev­er, restricts the essence of this right. Every­one has the right freely to choose a defend­er in court, while our leg­is­la­tor has lim­it­ed this right only to a lawyer. I am con­fi­dent that the Com­mit­tee will find a vio­la­tion of the journalist’s rights,” said the lawyer.

Although the Belaru­sian author­i­ties have not yet react­ed to any of the deci­sions issued by the UN Human Rights Com­mit­tee, the free­lance jour­nal­ist says that the issue of imple­men­ta­tion of deci­sions tak­en in Gene­va is a ques­tion of time.

“In addi­tion to estab­lish­ing a vio­la­tion of my rights, the com­plaint also raised the ques­tion of the respon­si­bil­i­ties of the gov­ern­ment of Belarus to amend the nation­al leg­is­la­tion in such a way that its appli­ca­tion does not lead to fur­ther vio­la­tions described by me,” sums up Larysa Shchyrako­va.