It is 18 years since Belarus gained its independence from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Yet in a country that does not know the excess of the rich nor the desperation of the poor and where the unemployment rate is under two per cent, talking about politics, economy or society is still forbidden.
‘Slander against the government is punished as a criminal act, allowing the immediate suspension of the publications, as well as the arrest of the editors,’ says Andrei Aliaksandrau, a spokesperson of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ). The head office of the BAJ is a little room on the ground floor of a Soviet-style building, not far away from the residence of Alexander Lukashenko – the President of Belarus for the last 15 years and the assassin of independent press. ‘If we look at the number of registered newspapers in our country, most of them are related to entertainment,’ explains Aliaksandrau. ‘There are only 20 independent publications covering topics such as politics or the economy, and they are facing a lot of problems.’
