Media News - Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Minsk says Internet to stay free

Authorities in Belarus will not use a new law on the media to restrict the Internet, an aide to President Alexander Lukashenko said Tuesday. The new law, approved by parliament in June, does not specifically require Internet sites to be registered, but allows their regulation to be overseen by government decisions. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the continent's leading rights watchdog, called for rejection of the law before its passage. Independent journalists in the country of 10 million had expressed fears that websites could be closed down. Since Lukashenko came to power in 1994, many independent publications have been closed down, leaving the Internet as the chief means of information on the country's small, and often divided, liberal and nationalist opposition. State media in the country, wedged between Russia and three European Union states, report at length on the president's activities and heap lavish praise on his initiatives. Opposition figures are given little air time apart from brief spots, as required by law, during election campaigns. (Moscow Times)

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