Belarus media harassed in run-up to presidential vote
New York, December 10, 2010–Belarusian authorities must stop harassing independent media outlets and journalists and allow them to cover the December 19 presidential elections without fear of reprisal, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Fighting bogus piracy raids, Microsoft issues new licenses
CPJ has documented for several years the use of spurious anti-piracy raids to shut down and intimidate media organizations in Russia and the former Soviet republics. Offices have been shut down, and computers seized. Often, security agents make bogus claims to be representing or acting on behalf of the U.S. software company Microsoft.
CPJ calls for independent probe of Aleh Byabenin’s death
New York, December 3, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned that Belarusian prosecutors have closed their investigation into the September death of Aleh Byabenin, founder and director of the Minsk-based, pro-opposition news website Charter 97. Authorities said Wednesday that they did not find evidence of foul play.
Murder, ‘suicide,’ crossfire: A week of journalist killings
Today we will report another murder of a journalist. This one was in Argentina. The last one we documented was a couple days ago–Alberto Graves Chakussanga was shot in the back in Angola. These tragedies are part of our daily work at CPJ, but this week was different. There have been eight killings of journalists…
Journalist found dead in Belarus; CPJ calls for investigation
New York, September 8, 2010–Belarusian authorities must thoroughly investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of Aleh Byabenin, founder and director of the Minsk-based pro-opposition news website Charter 97, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.Byabenin’s brother and several friends found the journalist hanging from a stairway in his summer house outside the capital city of Minsk…
Belarusian authorities strip Sheremet of citizenship
We issued the following statement after learning that Belarusian authorities have stripped Pavel Sheremet, a prominent journalist living in Russia, of his Belarusian citizenship. In an interview today for the independent news Web site Belarussky Partizan, Sheremet said he received a notice about this from the Belarusian embassy in Moscow. Sheremet said the notice did not…
Ruling obstructs Belarusian Association of Journalists
New York, March 23, 2010—The Belarusian Supreme Court has upheld a government order that will obstruct the work of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, the country’s most prominent press freedom and media support organization. The Committee to Protect Journalists denounced the ruling, which was handed down Monday.
In bad company: Kazakhstan takes page from Belarus
Belarus has been termed Europe’s last dictatorship because of its long intolerance of dissent and press freedom. So accustomed is the world to the clampdowns of President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s regime that neither a recently issued decree on Internet access, which requires that providers record users’ personal data, nor last week’s police raids at a number…
Belarusian police raid news offices in defamation probe
New York, March 16, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns raids conducted today by Minsk police at the offices of the independent news Web site Charter 97, the independent newspaper Narodnaya Volya, and the home office of freelance reporter Irina Khalip.