BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

17/06/2008

Belarus tightens media restrictions

By NICK HOLDSWORTH

Measures aimed at foreign-owned press

MOSCOW - Media freedom in Belarus, Russia's Western neighbor that has been described as "the last dictatorship in Europe," faced further restrictions Tuesday when a new mass media bill got its first parliamentary reading.

The bill proposes tightening political and legal control over Internet-based newspapers by applying current print media registration requirements to them and obligatory registration of journalists working for foreign news outlets.

Tighter sanctions for media outlets that cause offence to state or public bodies and tougher rules for journalists wishing to be accredited to cover official events appear aimed at curbing press freedom in a country where the only daily and two weekly opposition papers are all published abroad.

News media with more than 30% foreign ownership will be outlawed under the bill's provisions, which Russian media reports said were aimed primarily at limiting the influence of Russian media in Belarus.

Media freedom has been curtailed in Belarus under the autocratic presidency of Alexander Lukashenko and although the country is officially working on a political and economic unification process with Russia, the relationship between the two countries is a rocky one.

Source:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117987593.html?categoryid=1442&cs=1

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