BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

16/06/2006

Media Watchdog Backs Belarusian Journalist's Asylum Bid

PRAGUE, June 16, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The international media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has backed a Belarusian journalist's appeal for political asylum in Ukraine.

Andrei Shentorovich, editor of "Mestnaya gazeta," an independent weekly based in the city of Volkovysk, fled to Ukraine shortly after Belarus' disputed March presidential election in which President Alyaksandr Lukashenka won a third term.

Shentorovich, who had published articles on official corruption, was detained on the eve of the poll and spent three days in prison. In 2004, he went on hunger strike to protest the suspension of his newspaper by authorities.

RSF said in a statement that Shentorovich was not the only editor to have left Belarus in recent years to escape the systematic political repression. It said his decision is "yet further evidence that dissident journalists are pushed to the limit and then forced out."

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/06/d09235e7-909f-4bdf-bb0b-e03a92f070d2.html