BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

Tuesday October 4, 2005

Protest at closure of Belarus newspaper

Katy Duke

Belarus's last independent daily newspaper has gone out of business as a result of alleged pressure from the state, in a move criticised by international press freedom groups.

Narodnaya Volya, or "People's Will", was forced to close after two state distributors and a publishing house decided to cancel their contracts, citing different reasons.

Miklos Haraszti, the media representative for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, has written to President Lukaschenko's government, saying: "I view this development as unprecedented in the OSCE region. Belarus will lose two-thirds of its independent press.

He said the paper's closure "would be a major setback in the development of the free press in Belarus and a great loss for Belarussian society".

President Lukaschenko, whom critics have called Europe's last dictator, has repeatedly come under fire from international organisations including the United Nations for violently opposing any form of dissent.

Narodnaya Volya, which closed yesterday, was considered the most important voice of the opposition in Belarus. It sold approximately 150,000 copies a week, publishing on five days in both Belarussian and Russian.

The Belarussian Association of Journalists branded the state's actions regarding Narodnaya Volya "lawless" and said it intended to silence the country's only independent voice at a time when a pro-democracy opposition party was choosing its candidate to oppose President Lukaschenko in the 2006 presidential election.

The association said that by closing down the newspaper the authorities were ensuring minimal publicity about the opposition party, which elected its single candidate on October 2.

Source:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1584741,00.html