International Reaction
The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklos Haraszti, condemned the three-year high-security prison sentence handed down to Aliaksandar Zdvizhkou. “In 21st century Europe, it is shocking to see an editor arrested, tried behind closed doors and punished beyond any acceptable limits only for reprinting cartoons produced elsewhere and that have been published everywhere,” said Haraszti. “I see the imprisonment of Zdvizhkov, the closing of Zhoda, and the crushing fine against Novy Chas as part of a campaign against a team of independent journalists, one of the few that are still working in Belarus,” Haraszti noticed. Read more here.
Reporters Without Borders is outraged by the three-year prison sentence passed today by a court in Minsk on Aliaksandar Zdvizhkou. “This sentence is extremely severe,” the press freedom organisation said. “Zdvizhkou should never have been prosecuted. It is highly likely that this was just a pretext for punishing an opposition journalist. The circumstances of his arrest reinforce that interpretation.” Read more here.
“The Danish Union of Journalists strongly opposes this attempt to limit the freedom of speech, recently exemplified by the arrest of Aleksandr Sdvizhkov when he in December returned to Minsk after a prolonged stay in Moscow. …Furthermore we condemn the closure of Zgoda by the authorities in March 2006 only three days before the presidential elections.” Read more here.
“Clearly this is just a pretext to punish an independent journalist even after shutting down his publication,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “We call on the Belarusian authorities to immediately release Aleksandr Sdvizhkov.” Read more here.
