Freelancer from Homel Files Complaint to the UN HRC

On Jan­u­ary 13 the judge of the Homel dis­trict court Ali­ak­san­dr Lisous­ki imposed a fine on Larysa Shcyrako­va for coop­er­a­tion with the satel­lite TV Bel­sat based in Poland. The reporter made a report about prob­lems of res­i­dents of vil­lage Uryt­skaye, Homel dis­trict. On April 15, the judge of the Cen­tral dis­trict court of Homel Ali­ak­san­dr Pisku­nou fined her and her col­league Kas­tus Zhuk­ous­ki for a report about refugees made in the local office of the Red Cross.

“In Belarus, I have used all lev­els of judi­cial defense, and all with no result,” said Larysa Shcyrako­va. I also filed a super­vi­so­ry com­plaint to the Pros­e­cu­tor Gen­er­al, all in vain. It turns out that Bel­sat cas­es have no defense in the coun­try. I resort­ed to the only pos­si­ble legal rem­e­dy at the inter­na­tion­al lev­el.”

Leanid Sudalen­ka remarked that Larysa Shcyrakova’s case revealed sev­er­al con­tra­dic­tions between the nation­al law and inter­na­tion­al treaties to which Belarus is a par­ty.

“The Inter­na­tion­al Covenant on Civ­il and Polit­i­cal Rights guar­an­tees each per­son the right to gath­er and dis­sem­i­nate infor­ma­tion. Our nation­al law on the media in fact restricts the very essence of the right. I am sure that the case will end up with estab­lish­ing the vio­la­tion of the journalist’s right,” he added.

For more infor­ma­tion see Arti­cle 22.9 of the Code of Admin­is­tra­tive Vio­la­tions

Relat­ed: Free­lance Jour­nal­ist Com­plains to UN Human Rights Com­mit­tee