BAJ Prepared Annual Review “Violations of Journalists’ and Mass Media Rights in Belarus in 2011”

The new online bulletin «Mass media in Belarus» dedicated to violations of journalists’ rights in 2011 is available on BAJ website in the section «Monitoring» in pdf format in Belarusian, Russian and English.

The political and economic crisis in Belarus exerted a determining influence on the situation with mass media in the country in 2011. it developed after the Presidential election on December 19, 2010 and the following wave of repressions against the opposition and civil society.

According to BAJ, the most blatant violations of journalists’ and media rights in 2011 were as follows:

— criminal prosecution of journalists;
— numerous detentions of journalists at protest actions during the whole year 2011;
— revocation of «autoradio» broadcast license;
— institution of claims against «narodnaya Vola» and «nasha niva» by the Ministry of
information of Belarus, aimed at closure of these independent periodical editions;
— return of ‘ban lists’ of actors, literary men, and musicians;
— restrictions on the free use of the Web;
— aggravation of economic discrimination of independent mass media.

Find the whole review in English here