Summary

The present report is submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 26/25, focusing on the situation of freedom of expression in Belarus. It contains the main findings of the Special Rapporteur and provides recommendations aimed to support Belarus in complying with stipulations regarding freedom of expression in its national Constitution and its international obligations.

The findings of the report show that for over two decades, the established system of media governance has effectively stifled the exercise of the right to freedom of opinion and information. Media pluralism is absent; Belarus is the only country in Europe with no privately owned nationwide broadcasting outlets. The Government is the direct regulator of all types of media. Media independence is rendered impossible through a permission-based system of registration and arbitrary rules regarding the revoking of licences. Critical expression and fact-finding are curtailed by the criminalization of content that is deemed “harmful for the State”, by criminal defamation and insult laws that protect public officials and the President in particular from public scrutiny and by extremism laws that ban reporting on political or societal conflicts. The system-wide violations of the right to freedom of expression are further aggravated by the systematic harassment of journalists who challenge the denial of their rights. Especially worrying in this regard is the adoptio n in December 2014 of amendments to the law on mass media, which have taken on the last vestiges of free expression, the Internet. Belarus approaches its next presidential elections deprived of the media rights necessary for an informed, free and fair election.