The organization Solidarity with Belarus has recently announced the results of the second year of competition for the best newspaper article about Belarus. The competition received 60 articles from 36 journalists from 16 countries all over the world – from Indonesia to Germany, Costa Rica to Romania. The most articles were sent by journalists from Belarus, the United Kingdom, and Poland. 

The international panel of judges looked for analytical articles that attempted to take a fresh approach to Belarus - a country commonly labeled as ‘the last dictatorship of Europe’. All articles had been written for an audience outside of Belarus. 

The first place was awarded to Michal Potocki (Poland) for his summarizing article ‘Split Personality Intersection’ published in the Polish daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, which vividly describes the problems that modern Belarusian society is facing.

Laurent Vinatier (France) received the second prize for ‘A Dictatorship’s Success Stories’ published in The Global Journal. The author of this original article deals with the position of business in Belarus, providing a few very interesting examples.

The third prize went to the article devoted to the situation of political prisoners. Belarusian journalist and editor of a leading Belarusian language newspaper ‘Nasha Niva’, Andrej Dynko, Europe’s Last Dictatorship, The New York Times. 

More information and a list of all entries can be viewed on the website of the competition.

The screening of films related to the topic will take place on Wednesday, March 20th at the Polish Institute, Prague. Two documentaries, produced by TV Belsat, will be presented at the event. The films deal with the topic of death penalty and Belarusian repressive apparatus, shown mainly through the example of a bomb attack in Minsk subway in April 2011.

Program:

17:00

Screening of the documentaries by TV Belsat

Terror in the land of peace (director, Katsiaryna Bortnik, 2012, 43 min.)

The highest penalty (director. Siarhei Isakau, 2012, 34 min.)

18:30

Discussion about activities of TV Belsat and the current situation in Belarus

Speakers: Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy, TV Belsat director and Petruska Šustrová, journalist and director of the Civic Belarus Association.

Films and discussion will be translated into Czech, entrance is free.

Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy has been leading Belsat TV since its establishment in 2007. This station is partially financed by the Polish Public Television and the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It aims at promoting democracy and civil society in Europe's last dictatorship - Belarus. "We are trying to lay foundations," says Romaszewska, "but it depends on the Belarusian society what will happen after." A few weeks ago, for the first time in Poland, Ms Romaszewska-Guzy was announced a European of the Year for her work by the magazine Reader’s Digest. 

Organizers:

The Polish Institute

People in Need

The recently finished presidential elections in the Czech Republic were notable not only because of the variety of candidates and the fact that the Czechs could elect their president directly for the first time in history. The elections also attracted attention of Belarusian Election Observation Mission "Belarus Watch", which consists of Belarusian students and NGO representatives.

The long-term goal of the project is not only overseeing of the elections process, but also mediating to young Belarusians the experience of democracy in European countries. Apart from Belarus Watch, European Humanitarian University (EHU) and the Human Rights House in Vilnius also participated in the project.

 Belarusians observed the elections during the first round on January, 11th and 12th. During two days they visited 182 polling stations across the country. There is no tradition of electoral observers in the Czech Republic (for example, during the last elections in Georgia there were more observers registered, than there were electoral districts). The status of an observer is also not very clearly written in the law, which can be attributed to general trust in the fair counting of votes.

The members of the mission did not encounter any attempt of fraud or manipulation with votes and evaluated the voting as being smooth. However, the report on the progress of observations brings along some interesting findings:

- Only rarely were polling stations equipped for people with disabilities and many polling stations were located above the ground floor, making access difficult for the elderly.

- In some cases, voters crowded polling stations, which led to queues inside the room and outside. There were several cases of open voting: voters put their ballots in envelopes outside the polling screens, which contradicts the requirements in legislation. The members of electoral commissions did not usually react to such behavior.

- Ballot boxes were sealed in various ways. In some districts the boxes had locks, in others they did not. Sometimes, ballot boxes were sealed without signatures of the members of electoral commissions. In some cases, unsealed boxes were observed in polling stations, which, according to members of election commissions, were not currently in use. However, the empty boxes could have been misused later. The Mission believes that the procedure of sealing the ballot boxes should be described in more detail in the legislation.

- After the closing of polling stations, unused envelopes were not counted everywhere. The counting of unused envelopes, according to electoral law, should always take place before the counting of votes.

Belarusian regime still holds political prisoners, among them is presidential candidate Nikola Statkevich, chairman of the youth organization Molody Front Zmicer Dashkevich and human rights activist Ales Bialacki.

Especially, first two prisoners experience strong pressure from prison authorities. In response to this situation, an online petition appealing to the representative of the European Union to develop continued efforts to support the release of all Belarusian political prisoners was created. The petition can be signed here.

Nikola Statkevich is the last presidential candidate from 2010, who is currently still in prison. Former army general still refuses to yield to pressure of the regime and sign a request for pardon. In January 2011, Statkevich was sentenced to three years in prison in connection with protests after manipulated presidential elections. In May of the same year, his sentence was increased to six years for the "organization of mass disorders".

During the stay in prison he was repeatedly placed in solitary confinement and was denied medical assistance. Nikola Statkevich is currently held in isolation and is allowed visits only once a year.

You can support Nikola Statkevich by sending a letter to the following address:

Статкевіч Мікала

турма № 4

вул. Крупскай 99А

212011 г. Магілёў

Zmicer Dashkevich is a Belarusian political activist. In 2006, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for "illegal political activity." Amnesty International pronounced him a prisoner of conscience.

The day before the announcement of the outcome of the presidential election, on December 18th, 2010, Dashkevich was arrested along with another activist Eduard Lobau for alleged assault of two men. In March 2011, Zmicer was sentenced to two years imprisonment. In protest against the sentence Dashkevich repeatedly held hunger strikes and, similarly to Statkevich, refused to sign a request for pardon. In September, his two-year sentence was extended for another year for "aggressive and systematic violations of prison order."

You can support Zmicer Dashkevich by sending a letter to the following address:

Дашкевіч Зміцер 

турма №1

вул. Кірава1

230023 г. Горадня

An opening of Belarus Press Photo exhibition will be held in Brno on September 25th 2012. The collection contains all the winning photos from last year. The exhibition will take place in Dom pánů z Kunštátu (Dominikánská 9) and will be open at the usual visiting hours till October 7th (Wednesday-Sunday 10-18 h). Admission is voluntary.

A petition by Amnesty International for the release of unjustly imprisoned activist Ales Bialiacky will be available for signature at the event. There also will be a public collection of teddy bears with personalized signatures and appeals to release a particular prisoner and respect human rights in Belarus. Collected teddy bears will be later sent to the Belarusian ambassador in Prague. This event is related to the incident that happened on July 4th 2012, when two members of a Swedish advertising company, Studio Total, flew a single-engine plane from Lithuania to Belarus and shed parachutes with around 800 teddy bears carrying posters appealing for freedom of speech.

The exhibition is a part of a theater festival of Belarusian scenic readings organized by theater company FESTE. More information is available at the theater’s website.