IFJ and PACE call on Belarusian authorities to stop silencing media

Mats Johansson, Standing Rapporteur of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) on Media Freedom, and Arne König, President of the European Federation of Journalists, today made the following statement on the situation of the media in Belarus:

“We are shocked by the systematic silencing of the independent media in Belarus, which has dramatically increased since the presidential elections in December last year, resulting into a de facto denial of freedom of expression and information of the Belarus people.

While we welcome the release of Natalia Radzina and Irina Khalip as demanded in Resolution 1790 (2011) of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, we are still very concerned by the continued detention of others, the denials of the fundamental right to have access to a lawyer while in custody as well as the numerous criminal trials.Therefore, we call on the Belarus authorities and in particular the judiciary to respect the universal human rights commitments of their country.

We demand that the authorities in Belarus cease threatening freedom of expression, and express our solidarity with the people and in particular the journalists of Belarus, whose courage we commend.”