OSCE Representative opens seminar in Minsk, voices concern over State control over media

MINSK, 4 June 2007 - Miklos Haraszti, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, opened a seminar for some 30 journalists and government press secretaries in Minsk today.

The two-day event, organized with the support of the OSCE Office in Minsk, aims to develop better relations between the State and media to increase the access of the Belarusian society to information held by government bodies.

"I hope this seminar is a sign that authorities are ready to start co-operation with the OSCE on media freedom issues," said Haraszti.

During his stay in Minsk, Haraszti met government officials, including Deputy Foreign Minister, Valery Voronetsky, and Deputy Minister of Information, Alexander Slobodchuk. He also met editors of non-State newspapers and leaders of the Belarusian Association of Journalists.

During a meeting with the Chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, Ethnic Relations and the Media, Yuri Kulakovski, Miklos Haraszti provided him with a review on the draft law on protecting information.

The Representative welcomed the invitation by authorities to the Belarusian Association of Journalists to comment on the draft law, and the fact that independent journalists were recently invited to a press conference by President Aleksandr Lukashenko.

"However, the actual situation of the independent media has not improved since my last visit in 2005. Rather, new restrictive media rules have been adopted," Haraszti said.

"Independent media continues to work against hardships of administrative warnings, arbitrary registration regime, discriminatory distribution and subscription services, and politically guided printing and advertisement markets."

Haraszti said he hoped his discussions with government officials would lead to legal improvements for the media.