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IFEX MEMBERS URGE PROBE OF JOURNALIST'S DEATH

The International Press Institute (IPI), Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) have called on Belarusian authorities to investigate whether the death of a journalist last week was linked to his work.

On 18 October 2005, Vasily Grodnikov's body was found in his apartment outside Minsk. His head was covered in blood. An autopsy at the Minsk Regional Clinical Hospital concluded that the cause of death was head trauma.

Grodnikov, 66, was a freelance reporter for "Narodnaya Volya", an opposition newspaper that has been harassed by authorities for criticising President Aleksandr Lukashenko. State-run kiosks are not permitted to sell the newspaper and authorities abruptly ended its printing contract on 1 October, forcing it to use a printer in the neighbouring Russian city of Smolensk.

"Narodnaya Volya's" editor-in-chief, Yosif Seredich, said Grodnikov wrote mostly about social issues and had no links to the authorities or to the opposition. Grodnikov's brother said he survived an attack in January, but he gave no details.

IPI, RSF and CPJ say have expressed skepticism about whether Belarusian authorities are serious about probing Grodnikov's death, pointing out that the murders of two other journalists in Belarus remain unsolved.

Investigative reporter Veronika Cherkasova was stabbed to death on 20 October 2004. She worked for the Minsk-based opposition newspaper "Solidarnost" and wrote articles about corruption and religious sects. Shortly before her murder, she had been investigating the possibility that the Belarusian government sold arms to Iraq when Saddam Hussein was in power. Journalists have criticised authorities for focusing on her teenage son as a suspect rather than investigating work-related motives for her killing.

Dmitry Zavadsky, a 29-year-old cameraman for the Russian public television network ORT, disappeared in July 2000. Belarusian authorities have repeatedly stonewalled an investigation into his case, despite pressure from the Council of Europe. Zavadsky's family has been denied any details about the investigation, even though the law authorises relatives to obtain such information.

According to the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, press freedom in Belarus has been deteriorating over the past two years. Miklos Haraszti cited the declining number of independent media outlets, the state's domination of the broadcast sector and the use of libel and insult laws to silence government critics as symptoms of the deterioration.

Visit these links:
- IPI: http://www.freemedia.at/Protests2005/pr_Belarus24.10.05.htm
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15364
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Belarus20oct05na.html
- CPJ Report on Belarus: http://www.cpj.org/attacks04/europe04/belarus.html
- Freedom House Report on Belarus:
http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/freeworld/2004/countryratings/belarus.htm
- OSCE Report on Belarus: http://www.osce.org/documents/rfm/2005/03/4390_en.pdf
- Belarusian Association of Journalists: http://baj.ru/indexe.htm