Part of MediaChannel's Global Media Landscapes series. We are seeking articles about the politics and culture of media in your region. Please write to editor@mediachannel.org with story suggestions.
By Chris Groner
The last few independent publications in Belarus face a possible, imminent crackdown following the reelection of Alexander Lukashenko as president of Belarus on September 9. The elections were classified as "not democratic" by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, with state propaganda listed as one of the most blatant symptoms in an unequal battle.
However, the authorities may have been caught out by the resourcefulness of non-state publications in the run-up to the vote. Boosted by U.S. funding and circumventing direct censorship, many published high-circulation election sheets in support of the opposition. Their fighting spirit may now prompt the authorities to once and for all do away with independent media.
The U.S. may have backed the wrong horse with its active support for trade union organizer Vladimir Goncharik as presidential candidate. Worse still, this may have helped discredit the opposition and non-state media, now labeled as traitors.
The Media Given Warning
Prior to the vote, Lukashenko announced that he would call the media to account after the elections, taking advantage of the decline in international scrutiny. Since then, the authorities seized the print run of an issue of independent newspaper Pahonia in Grodno on 12 September, in relation to a pending libel court case at the Supreme Economic Court of Belarus.
Lukashenko's government has also made moves to crack down on Internet access providers, banning the use of satellite channels for incoming traffic on 4 October. This increase ISPs' dependence on state-owned provider Belpac. On the day of the election, most independent media, opposition or NGO sites ending with the domain name .by or .org became inaccessible, which observers attributed to a router shutdown by Belpak acting on orders of Lukashenko. By 10 October, the domains operated normally again. Belarus with a population of 10 million has an estimated 120,000 Internet users, primarily located in Minsk.
Censorship — Means To An End
During the election campaign, Lukashenko installed a government censor at Magic, a private printing house that prints most of the non-state publications. The censor, the First Deputy Chairman of the State Committee on the Press, Vladimir Glushakov, remains to date. Articles or images not to the liking of Glushakov have to be replaced; otherwise the respective publications such as the largest independent daily Narodnaya Volya (Nation's Will) and one of the most prestigious weeklies Predprinimatelskaya Gazeta (Enterpreneurial Newspaper), are published with blank sections.
Another private printing plant, Plutos-Market, refused to print a caricature of Lukashenko in the analytical weekly Zgoga (Concord) on 20 September, even without the presence of an official censor. Despite the editor's insistence that arbitrary censorship by plant employees is illegal, the publication eventually came out featuring blanks. As independent publications are not allowed to print abroad, their leverage vis-à-vis the few private printing plants is small.
On 14 September, the Belarusian Association of Journalists filed an application to the Belarus Prosecutor General Office against Glushakov arguing that he violates the Constitution which prohibits the use of direct censorship (Article 33). However, Glushakov claims that the banned materials dishonor(ed) the President. In another case, he banned the whole print run (400,000 on 28 August) of a special election issue of Rabochy, which carried materials about corruption in Belarus leadership circles. Arbitrary confiscations at distribution level are also common.
Currently state publications sell about three million copies a week, while independent print media reaches about 300,000 readers. The only nationwide Belarusian channel BT is fully in the hands of the state. However, full government control of the electronic sector is limited by the wide availability of Russian channels ORT, RTR and NTV which enjoy much higher audience shares. However, these channels were of no use to the opposition, since they are controlled by the Russian government that has given Lukashenko its conditional support in return for continuing moves towards a full union and the opening of the Belarusian state-run economy to Russian capital. In contrast, the opposition favors independence and closer cooperation with the EU.
In the pre-election period, Narodnaya Volya, the only non-state daily newspaper with a circulation of about 50,000, faced pressures of a particular kind. Its editor, Iosif Syaredzych, said he was beleaguered by opposition politicians desperate to gain access to media. Furthermore, he was subject to additional pressure by the state which decided to carry out an extensive financial investigation a few weeks before the vote. Official harassment included the seizure of computers and a special printing machine at Magic.
As other publications, the paper also had to endure direct censorship by Glushakov who would regularly demand changes to submitted content. "I refused to replace the lead article of the 8 September issue, so half of the front page came out blank. The article was a statement by the leader of the Communist Party who had discovered evidence that the election results were to be falsified," said Syaredzych.
Whereas before, the Belarusian government's strategy was to minimize the impact of the independent media by imposing economic sanctions such as higher prices for paper, printing and distribution, plus a wide array of legal measures, Lukashenko's administration now seems to be more determined to once and for all shut down independent voices.
"The election result was most certainly fake, with many convinced that Lukashenko did not win a majority in the first round and therefore would have had to call a second round. Lukashenko is likely to attribute his loss in support at least partially to the impact of independent media. We are expecting harsh measures any day, " said Aleksei Korol, editor- in-chief, at Zgoda.
Lukashenko was widely expected to win the election. However, his reported 75 percent of the vote, compared with a projected 40 to 50 percent, has given rise to fraud allegations. However, fraud allegations cannot be verified, as the government successfully banned all independent election monitors in the run-up to the vote.
The Special Edition Format
Many independent papers successfully printed and distributed hundreds of thousands of free special election issues (spezvypusk) distributed by opposition activists. For instance, Belaruskaya Molodezhnaya (The Belarusian Youth Paper) produced seven special editions with a combined circulation of two million.
An opposition activist handing out pro-Goncharik leaflets and a spezvypusk of independent newspaper Nasha Svoboda in Brest was sent to jail, for "expressing political interests that run counter to the re- election of Lukashenko."
The OSCE said that the elections failed to meet Western standards of democracy; principally because of the unbalanced campaign which preceded it. However, some of the blame can be attributed to the West. Most funding for the election campaign for Goncharik, Lukashenko's main challenger, came from the U.S., which aimed to replicate the victory of the DOS (Democratic Opposition of Serbia) in Yugoslavia last year. The U.S. Embassy reportedly distributed up to U.S. $50 million to Charter 97, which in turn allocated money to individual groups (including the student movement Zubr that copied Yugoslavia's real guerrilla campaign Otpor) and publications.
However, observers say the U.S. interventionist mission failed to take local conditions into account and instead the outcome may have discredited the alternative political movement and non-state media for years. Goncharik was widely seen as an artificial candidate selected by U.S. ambassador Michael Kozak rather than the Belarus opposition parties. Semen Domash, the leader of "Regional Belarus" movement, was better known to the public, but in the end he had to withdraw his candidature.
The Disappearance Of State Critics
Following the political changes in Yugoslavia last year, Belarus remains arguably the only dictatorship in Europe, with allegations ranging from beatings of protesters to a state death squad responsible for the disappearance and murder of up to 30 opposition politicians and journalists. ORT cameraman Dmitry Zavadsky who had often irritated Lukashenko with his critical coverage disappeared in July 2000. The hearing regarding his kidnapping — closed to the public or the Belarusian Association of Journalists — opened on 23 October.
The defendants include Valery Ihnatovich, a former member of the Interior Ministry's special task force Almaz, widely believed to have become an official scapegoat for the killing. Earlier this year, two former Belarusian investigators said a government-organized death squad was responsible for the death of Zavadski and two opposition politicians, Yury Zakharanka and Viktar Hanchar.
Yet within the post-Soviet space, the authoritarian regime in Belarus is matched by similarly repressive ones in the Caucasus and Central Asia, and some of its methods such as disappearances, or arbitrary tax inspections and fire checks, are also common in Russia and Ukraine.
Despite the prospects of another five years of strongman Lukashenko and widespread disillusionment, some independent journalists remain optimistic. "In the course of one year, people will wake up and the current regime will eventually be forced to give up rule," says Syaredzych.
— Chris Groner (chrisgron@excite.com) is a media analyst and journalist specializing in the coverage of Central and Eastern European affairs.
HOME
