IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
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ALERT - BELARUS
16 February 2007
Decree obliges Internet cafe owners to report customers visiting illegal websites to police, record navigations
SOURCE: Reporters sans frontières (RSF), Paris
(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has condemned a decree adopted by the council of ministers which forces owners of cybercafés and Internet clubs to report Internet users looking at illegal websites to the police.
The new law, approved on 10 February 2007, also obliges proprietors to record the last year of Internet navigation on their computers.
"On the pretext of wanting to monitor pornographic or violent websites, the Belarus authorities are really seeking to censor opposition websites and independent media, "the worldwide press freedom organisation said.
"The decree will force cybercafé proprietors to turn themselves into police officers. Internet users will be pushed into self-censorship and none of them will dare to go on to websites which displease the authorities."
"Moreover, since the state already has a monopoly on Internet access, through the company Beltelekom, cybercafés were the last resort of anyone wanting to post critical news without risk of arrest," the organisation added.
The government said the step was needed to fight Internet crime, but in Belarus criticising President Alexander Lukashenko or other members of the government is considered a serious offence punishable by a prison sentence. Internet-users have to present ID when they go to a cybercafé.
Information Minister Uladzimir Rusakievich said on 31 January that an Internet law was being drafted. "We do not want to prevent the development of the Internet, but it is our duty to innovate in this field," he said.
Belarus is on RSF's list of the 13 enemies of the Internet.
For further information, contact Julien Pain, RSF Internet Desk, 5, rue Geoffroy Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 71, fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51, e-mail: internet@rsf.org, Internet: http://www.internet.rsf.org
The information contained in this alert is the sole responsibility of RSF. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit RSF.
On October 23, Minsk court sentenced Belarusian citizen, human rights activist Yekaterina Sadovskaya to two-year imprisonment and a fine of $1,800 for criticizing Belarusian authorities, Radio Liberty informs.
Investigator of Minsk public prosecutor’s office demanded a three-year imprisonment for the 60-year-old woman. However, the court took into consideration that 84-year-old mother and disabled husband are dependent on Sadovskaya for support.
Appeals to boycott March elections, at which Alexander Lukashenko was presidential contender for the third time, as well as to carry out the president’s psychiatric examination were contained in document, written by Sadovskaya. The court ascertained that the appeal was sent to nobody, being kept in her computer.
Sadovskaya does not admit guilt. She stated that people were sentenced even for thoughts in Byelorussia, adding that Lukashenko transformed human rights into mere empty words. She called her sentence prosecution, caused by political motives per sample of trials of people’s enemies during the Soviet times.
Permanent news address: www.regnum.ru/english/726715.html
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