Freedom House: “Belarus among worst countries considering press freedom and human rights”

• 20.07.2010, 11:25

Civil society activities give Belarus a hope for changes.

On July 19, Freedom House's director of studies, Christopher Walker answered questions of Radio Svaboda concerning Belarus:

Mr Walker, according to reports of Freedom House, every year Belarus has almost the same and extremely low results. Do you see any changes in this country?

It’s true, speaking about the general tendency, Belarus is among the worst countries, as noted in our recent report Nations in Transit, like in another our research reports, including the ones on press freedom and human rights.

In our reports Belarus is described as a consolidated authoritarian state. That is, there is little space for really independent activities in it, if we are talking about election process, media and civil society. In the latest reports we noted a little improvement, not thanks to actions of the Belarusian government, but thanks to the civil society, which is fighting for expanding of the free space.

The little improvement which has been noted by us in the Nations in Transit report, has taken place mostly in spite of the government’s efforts, and not thanks to it. It seems to me that it is important to realize that. To our mind, the civil society in Belarus has always been a sector which gives a hope to the country. But the Belarusian civil society encounters serious obstacles – not really favourable laws, regular crackdown and intimidation.

I would also like to emphasize that the strict control on media which exists in Belarus, creates huge barriers for the civil society. In more open societies the civil society receives standing thanks to a possibility to put across its message to the public through mass media. One can only guess how difficult it is in Belarus, where the civil society cannot get access to traditional media.