Lukashenka will pay for repressions against Internet
- 14.03.2012, 2:59
“Reporters without Borders” have proclaimed Belarus “the enemy of the Internet” and now intend to urge the European Union to withstand Lukashenka’s regime.
In the annual report of the international human rights organization “Reporters without Borders” Belarus is listed along with other “enemies of the Internet” – Myanmar, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The list also includes the countries whose governments impose hard limitations on the freedom of online users, according to the authors of the report.
Editor-in-chief of the Belarusian website charter97.org Natallia Radzina was invited to Paris to attend the presentation of the report and the award ceremony of Netizen Prize (the award of ”Reporters without Borders” and Google company). Natalliaa Radzina was arrested after the Belarusian presidential election of 2010 and had to escape from the country.
Netizen Prize is an award for Internet users, bloggers and dissidents who fight for the freedom of speech on the Internet.
The editor-in-chief of charter97.org was a special guest during the event and handed the Netizen Prize 2012 to the media center of the Local Coordination Committees of Syria that unites several groups of public reporters who collect and spread information about the ongoing revolt in real time. Jasmine, a 27-year old Syrian living in Canada accepted the award on behalf of the activists who work in her motherland. The girl uses a pseudonym to protect her family.
”The Netizen Prize proves that our voices were heard, and that we managed to tell the world the story of millions of Syrians who fight on their land to make their dream of a free and decent life come true”, Jasmine said. “I’d like to thank you for your recognition of our work as an active and effective organization of the mass media.”
Syria’s story can be useful for Belarus. Syrian journalists and bloggers are constantly living under the threat of being arrested by the government. Since nearly no international information agencies are present in the country, the only way to spread information about the violence that swamped the country is via local coordination committees. They started to emerge spontaneously in March 2011 in the beginning of the Syrian revolution and have united human rights activists and local journalists. Now the committees operate all over the country.”
Local informers collect and communicate information to the committees that check the data against proof from several sources. Afterwards the news are translated into English and uploaded to the group’s websites. Video and photo is uploaded to Facebook and photoblogs.
Belarus too was mentioned at the event in Paris. Representatives from “Reporters without Borders” emphasized that our country lies in the center of Europe but the lawlessness in today’s Belarus can be compared to the human rights violations in the Middle East, South-Eastern Asia and Africa.
”For the first time Belarus is included to the report as “an enemy of the Internet”. Previously Belarus was on the list of the countries under observation. The situation in Belarus was seriously aggravated by the repressions that followed after the presidential election 2010. Many journalists and bloggers were arrested, social networks such as Facebook and Vkontakte.ru were blocked, entire groups in social networks were eliminated, Decree #60 on the Internet was signed and the banned websites were blacklisted. Internet-providers were watching their users while popular independent Internet resources such as charter97.org were DOS-attacked and hacked. In other words, the powers embarked on plain criminal methods. The regime realized how dangerous the Internet can be. Not only is it the source of information about the situation in the country and human rights violations; it is also a way to organize people. And so the entire arsenal of repressions was used against reporters. They were arrested, blacklisted, threatened, persecuted, and websites were hacked.
“By proclaiming Belarus ”an enemy of the Internet” we hope that Brussels will realize how repressive and closed this country is”, head of the bureau for Europe and ex-USSR countries of “Reporters without Borders” Johann Bihr said.
“Persecution of Internet users is becoming more frequent because they play a crucial role in the process of information collection, apart from other reasons”, president of ”Reporters without Borders” Dominique Gerbaud said. “The governments invent more advanced methods of censorship, control and repressions. We are proud to have the award that was created with the Google Company’s support, and that serves as a recognition and incentive for the bravery of Internet users.”
40 countries of the world take part in active censorship of the Internet today. They were only four 10 years ago. “The Internet helps courageous people in Syria and other countries to tell the world their story,” president of the French department of Google Jean-Marc Tassetto said. “Netizen Prize and our cooperation with ”Reporters without Borders” shows that we believe that access to information will lead to a greater freedom and higher social and economic development. Freedom of information is Google’s DNA.”
When handing the Netizen Prize to the media center of the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, Natallia Radzina said:
” I was in KGB prison when in 2011 ”Reporters without Borders” nominated me to the prize. My lawyer said that I had been nominated and I told investigators at interrogations: “The longer I stay here the more awards I’ll get.” I was exonerated after 1.5 months in prison, before the trial. Journalist awards in such countries as Belarus, Syria, Iran, Bahrain, Myanmar are a very important symbol of solidarity. They support and sometimes even save lives of journalists who are repressed for doing their work properly and telling the world about what is going on in their countries.”
Belarus fits the list of enemies of the Internet. The government started to murder and arrest Internet-journalists after Belarusian independent television, radio, and newspapers had been destroyed. In Belarus, well-known journalists Iryna Khalip and Andrzej Poczobut were sentenced to custodial restraint; Aleg Bebenin, Zmitser Zavadski, Veranika Charkasava were murdered. No, the Belarusian army is not throwing bombs on its people like in Syria, but during the recent 18 years the dictatorship has been using political murder and arrest as a way to deal with dissidents. Unfortunately, many countries in the European Union either ignore Belarus or treat it as a transit country for gas and oil supplies and do business with Europe’s last dictator. But business cannot be placed before human rights. I agree with the representative from the Google Company. Freedom should be a priority in the actions of European politicians and businessmen,” Natallia Radzina said during the ceremony.
Journalists, bloggers and Internet-activists from Belarus, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Iran took part in the discussion”Internet – space of freedom or repression tool” that was held within the presentation.
Speaking about Belarus, discussion moderator, journalist of Radio France Ziad Maalouf said: “This country lies in the center of Europe. For the last 18 years it has been ruled by a former director of a kolkhoz. Elections are falsified, political prisoners are kept in jails, freedom of speech is destroyed. Journalists are murdered and their murders are staged as suicides, just the way it had happened to founder of the website charter97.org Aleg Bebenin before the presidential election. And this is not a country to the south from Sahara, not an Asian country. This is a country in the center of Europe.”
Guests discussed the Internet-revolutions in the “Arab spring” countries. Talking about mobilization of people via the Internet, Natallia Radzina remarked that not only do political activists learn from the Arab Internet-revolutions, but even the Belarusian dictatorship makes certain conclusions.
“The reaction of the Belarusian powers to the attempts to mobilize people via the Internet was inadequately violent – mass arrests, counterpropaganda, the law “on action and inaction” that says that even an attempt to get together with no political demands can be treated by the powers as a non-authorized picket. Active Internet groups were destroyed at the embryo stage. The KGB arrested or even tried to recruit moderators of groups in the social networks; the groups were shut down. The powers were proactive. But I believe that the Internet will play a key role in the overthrow of the dictatorship. Although the first attempts of young Belarusians failed, they have revealed a vast layer in the society ready to get mobilized via the Internet and take part in the protests. Online-mobilization is reaching a completely new level,” the journalist said.
Summing up the discussion, the representatives from the countries of the Arab spring said that they had not heard about the situation in Belarus before. They didn’t know much about the country in general. “I am positive that Belarus will be free. We didn’t believe that we will succeed but we prevailed,” famous Egyptian blogger Shahinaz Abdel Salam said.