Members Of European Parliament Wrote To Federica Mogherini In Defense Of Charter-97

MEPs propose to change the EU's policy towards Belarus.

Vice-President of the European Parliament Pavel Telicka, Head of the European Parliament delegation for relations with Belarus Bogdan Zdrojewski and European MPs from France, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Croatia sent a letter to the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini.

The blocking of the Charter97.org site is an act of censorship, and, therefore, the hope that the real liberalization is going on in Belarus has no grounds, the authors of the letter believe.

The MEPs propose to change the EU's policy towards Belarus: "The freedom of press and media is a vital element for democracy and an open society. As such, it should be one of the focal points of EU policy with regards to Belarus, as part of a broader and coherent EU strategy based on conditionality which would focus on improving the rights and freedoms of Belarusians as we develop relations with Minsk."

The full text of the letter is below:

"Honourable High Representative, dear Mrs Mogherini,

As you are aware, independent media in the Republic of Belarus have been persecuted for years. Traditional newspapers and TV channels with a few negligible exceptions are either Russian-produced or under state control. The relative freedom and lesser government control over the online environment has pushed independent media to be mostly internet-based, on servers abroad, with the majority of the top 50 websites in Belarus being independent.

Recently, however, the Belarusian government imposed bans on several online news outlets including Belarus Partisan and Charter97.org. A special target of the government are media focusing on topics related to corruption and the government underperformance on social and economic indicators. These censorships unfortunately reflect recent clampdowns on different opposition media outlets in Belarus and undermine the credibility of hopes that there is genuine liberalisation in Belarus.

In our view, such acts of censorship and actions are counter-productive as a foundation for progress in other areas of EU-Belarus cooperation, including in developing a better framework for economic cooperation, increased EU assistance for Belarus and visa liberalisation. While we value the continuous effort to improve bilateral relations between Belarus and the EU in recent years, we also believe that the European Union has an important role to play in promoting and defending press and media freedom through its external actions. The freedom of press and media is a vital element for democracy and an open society. As such, it should be one of the focal points of EU policy with regards to Belarus, as part of a broader and coherent EU strategy based on conditionality which would focus on improving the rights and freedoms of Belarusians as we develop relations with Minsk.

Yours sincerely,

Pavel Telicka (Vice-President of the European Parliament)

Bogdan Andrzej Zdrojewski (Head of the European Parliament delegation for relations with Belarus)

Marietje Schake (Netherlands)

Petraas Austrevicius (Lithuania)

Jozo Rados (Croatia)

Nathalie Griesbeck (France)

Petr Jezek (Czech Republic)