BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

17/03/2010

Rights body, opposition condemn Belarus media raid

MINSK (Reuters) - Opposition politicians and international rights groups Thursday condemned a raid on the offices of independent media outlets in Belarus.

Masked police seized computers from the offices of both the opposition website Charter 97 and the independent newspaper Narodnaya Volya Tuesday, editors from the two publications said Thursday.

The homes of three journalists connected with the publications were also raided, they said. Neither the Belarus Interior Ministry nor its security services, the KGB, would comment when contacted by Reuters.

Belarus has long been long ostracized in the West over its suppression of dissent but, hoping to improve ties and reduce its economic dependence on Russia, Minsk has sought to improve its human rights record and has freed some political prisoners.

"There is this pressure, hunting for independent journalists," said the head of Charter 97 Andrei Sannikov.

"The EU should recognize the defeat of its inept policy of educating a dictator. Enough playing games," he said.

The raids may have been linked to the publication by both the website and the newspaper of a letter criticizing police officers, a media rights group said.

"We are outraged by the Minsk police actions and call for the immediate return of all equipment confiscated," said Nina Ognianova of the New York-based media rights group Campaign for the Protection of Journalists.

Last month Poland called on the European Union to press Belarus to curb a crackdown on its ethnic Polish minority that was condemned by the EU.

The Minsk authorities countered by accusing the Polish media of stoking a campaign against the country.

The opposition has criticized the media raids as the latest sign from authorities that they will not tolerate dissent. They said it demonstrated that the EU's engagement with President Alexander Lukashenko was not working.

"Belarus received an advance of trust from the EU but unfortunately this trust is not justified," former opposition presidential candidate Alexander Milinkevich told Reuters.

(Reporting by Andrei Makhovsky, writing by Conor Sweeney; Editing by Alison Williams)

Source:

http://in.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idINTRE62G2ZW20100317


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