Editor of opposition newspaper in Belarus threatened

VIENNA, 12 July 1999 - Freimut Duve, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, is seriously concerned with reports that a senior editor for the Belaruskaya Delovaya Gazeta, a leading opposition newspaper, had been threatened with violence by the authorities.

Belaruskaya Delovaya Gazeta had been running a series of investigative reports on government corruption. The newspaper has been constantly harassed by the authorities. Duve raised the case of Belaruskaya Delovaya Gazeta in a letter to Belarus Foreign Minister Ural Latypov on 1 July 1999. The latest action against the newspaper's senior editor has forced him into hiding.

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media urges the OSCE member-states to use their influence to stop this campaign of harassment of Belaryskaya Delovaya Gazeta and its staff.