Supreme court ruling deprives independent journalists of protection in run-up to elections

Reporters Without Borders deplores yesterday’s supreme court decision stripping the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), an organisation that has been defending press freedom in Belarus since 1995, of its ability to provide a degree of protection to journalists who are not officially recognised. The ruling is the latest move in a renewed offensive aimed at reining in independent or dissident media and journalists in the run-up to a series of elections due to be held in the coming months. Several newspapers such as Narodnaya Volya and journalists such as Irina Khalyp of Novaya Gazeta and Alyaksandr Dzyanisau have been harassed in recent weeks . There were signs in late 2009 that the Belarusian authorities were allowing the independent media a degree of freedom but that is now distant memory and worse is feared as the country prepares for local elections on 27 April and next year’s presidential election. In yesterday’s decision, a supreme court judge rejected the BAJ’s appeal against an interior ministry directive forbidding it to continue issuing its members with cards bearing the word “Press.” The ministry directive also notified the BAJ that the work of its legal assistance unit violated its founding charter and gave it a month to terminate the irregular activities. The ruling means that freelance journalists and journalists working for the many foreign media that have been denied official accreditation will be deprived of a document that differentiated them from ordinary citizens when they were covering events of public interest. In November 2009, for example, Alyaksandr Dzyanisau of Belsat TV (a non-accredited media) was arrested in the northwestern town of Byorazauka but was freed after showing the police his BAJ membership card. As Andrei Batunets of the BAJ said, the ruling turns freelance journalists into “outlaws” and exposes them to the possibility of sentences of up to 15 days in prison. This will discourage independent media coverage of any streets protests that could be held in the run-up to the elections, BAJ president Zhanna Litvina said yesterday. The BAJ regards the ruling as yet another case of harassment of the media and has said it will appeal against it to the supreme court’s president. The BAJ has been issuing its members with cards bearing the world “Press” for more than 10 years. Its legal aid unit, known by the acronym CLAM, has been helping journalists in trouble with the law since 1999.