OSCE: situation in Belarus is unprecedented for Europe

“Today we cel­e­brate Human Rights Day. How­ev­er, in the last 15 years, democ­ra­cy has been dete­ri­o­rat­ing. Where human rights are not respect­ed, free­dom of speech is always per­se­cut­ed,” said Žygi­man­tas Pavil­io­n­is, chair­man of the Lithuan­ian Seimas Com­mit­tee on For­eign Affairs.

“Just a few dozen kilo­me­ters from our coun­try, col­leagues can­not work and are forced to seek asy­lum in oth­er coun­tries. Dozens are in cus­tody. This is the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion. We must talk about stan­dards, about respect for the rights of jour­nal­ists. We must not dis­miss fun­da­men­tal issues,” said Dainius Radze­vičius, head of the Lithuan­ian Union of Jour­nal­ists.

“I am very glad to see my Belaru­sian col­leagues,” said the head of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists Andrei Bas­tunets in his speech. “Vil­nius is a city very close to Min­sk, it is clos­er than any Belaru­sian region­al cen­ter. How­ev­er, now the direct route from Belarus to Vil­nius is actu­al­ly blocked, and the road from Min­sk to Vil­nius turned into hun­dreds of kilo­me­ters. And as for the legal dimen­sion, it’s already dif­fi­cult to assess the dis­tance. A whole chasm has formed. And I am glad that our Lithuan­ian col­leagues are reach­ing across this chasm. Right now, we have 30 media rep­re­sen­ta­tives behind bars, and it’s very painful. It shows the sit­u­a­tion with jour­nal­ism in Belarus today.

Free­dom of speech is not only a fun­da­men­tal right but also a mea­sure of oth­er rights. And we see how these rights are ‘respect­ed’ in Belarus”.

Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists Mogens Blich­er Bjer­regård said in his speech that the EFJ is now work­ing to adopt a new direc­tive at the EU lev­el that would intro­duce more pro­tec­tive mea­sures in rela­tion to jour­nal­ists.

“It is worth not­ing that the Nobel Peace Prize this year was award­ed to jour­nal­ists. This is a sign that the work of jour­nal­ists is val­ued, and we under­stand the con­di­tions they have to work under. Nations need to have a nation­al action plan to ensure the safe­ty of jour­nal­ists. Den­mark has almost adopt­ed such a plan, and this must be done in all coun­tries. There must be tools to ensure the safe­ty of jour­nal­ists,” not­ed Mogens Ble­her Bere­gard.

Лауреатами Нобелевской премии мира стали журналисты Мария Ресса и Дмитрий Муратов

OSCE Rep­re­sen­ta­tive on Free­dom of the Media Tere­sa Ribeiro also par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Forum. She stat­ed that the sit­u­a­tion in the media sphere in Belarus is unprece­dent­ed for Europe:

“If we want to live in a demo­c­ra­t­ic soci­ety, we must respect the free­dom of speech. The right to pro­vide and receive infor­ma­tion is one of the fun­da­men­tal human rights. It is unac­cept­able that a jour­nal­ist is afraid for their life or expe­ri­ences pres­sure. It should be reg­u­lat­ed at the inter­na­tion­al lev­el. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, we see the vio­la­tion of jour­nal­ists’ rights in some coun­tries. The free­dom of the media is the secu­ri­ty of soci­ety. In Europe, we have nev­er encoun­tered such a depress­ing sit­u­a­tion as in Belarus.”

“In the last year, the Belaru­sian soci­ety in gen­er­al and jour­nal­ists in par­tic­u­lar were faced with the con­di­tions that allowed them to work nor­mal­ly only out­side the coun­try. Those who stay in Belarus live in con­stant stress and risk deten­tion and search. You are lucky if it is just a search and you stay at home, instead of serv­ing a 15-day arrest under inhu­mane con­di­tions, and then end up in jail, as it hap­pened with our col­league Iry­na Slau­nika­va,” described the sit­u­a­tion in Belarus jour­nal­ist Tat­siana Kar­avenka­va.

She also crit­i­cized politi­cians and inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions for mis­judg­ing the sit­u­a­tion in Belarus.

“I would say that OSCE and oth­er inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions have an illu­sion that we can come to terms with Lukashenka’s regime through diplo­ma­cy. But the repres­sion is a con­scious choice of the peo­ple who are now defend­ing their pow­er this way. And so far, no amount of talk is help­ing to release those media work­ers who are in cus­tody. I don’t think that talks and per­sua­sion will help to solve this sit­u­a­tion,” stressed Tat­siana Kar­avenka­va.

Lawyer, deputy chair­man of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists Aleh Aheyeu told men­tioned numer­ous facts of per­se­cu­tion of jour­nal­ists, edi­to­r­i­al offices, and pub­lic orga­ni­za­tions in the con­text of uni­ver­sal human rights.

“Those state bod­ies that are sup­posed to pro­tect human rights have turned into puni­tive struc­tures”, said Aheyeu.

Dur­ing the Forum, the sit­u­a­tion in the media sphere, polit­i­cal con­di­tions, and instru­ments of the two coun­tries were dis­cussed. Lithuan­ian rep­re­sen­ta­tives expressed their sup­port for Belaru­sians and Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists who uphold the val­ues of democ­ra­cy, free­doms, and human rights. 

Pho­to: Barys Haret­s­ki