Belarus

New York, December 10, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Belarusian authorities to prosecute and convict the perpetrators who made death threats against Iryna Khalip, Belarus correspondent for the Moscow-based independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta.

New York, March 5, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Belarusian authorities to renew work credentials for Andrzej Poczobut, a local correspondent for Poland's largest daily, Gazeta Wyborcza, and to investigate recent harassment of him and his family in the western city of Hrodno. Poczobut's credentials were pulled after he reported on the policies of President Aleksandr Lukashenko and the activities of the Belarusian security service.

In a February visit to Belarusian State University, President Aleksandr Lukashenko bluntly outlined his regime's press policy. "Media hold a weapon of a most destructive power," Lukashenko told journalism students, "and they must be controlled by the state."