Communications in Belarus - Limited Free Expression

Limited Free Expression

Many western human rights groups state that civil rights and free expression are severely limited in Belarus, though there are some individuals and groups that refuse to be controlled and some journalists have disappeared.

The situation is complex, however, because the relatively free Russian media is allowed to transmit television programming, sell newspapers and conduct journalistic activities in Belarus (though some Russian journalists have been expelled by the Belarusian government) thus giving some members of the public, typically those in large cities with many Russian residents, access to an alternative point of view in the Russian language (nearly all Belarusians understand and most of them speak Russian).

Because the Belarus government severely limits free expression, several opposition media outlets are broadcast from nearby countries to help provide Belarusians alternative points of view. This includes the Belsat TV station and European Radio for Belarus (Eŭrapéjskaje Rádyjo dla Biełarúsi)

Reporters Without Borders ranked Belarus 154th out of 178 countries in its 2010 Press Freedom Index. By comparison, the same index ranked neighbor Ukraine, 131st and Russia, 140th. The closest other European countries were considerably better in terms of press freedom, with Serbia ranked 85th and Romania 52nd.

In the 2011 Freedom House Freedom of the Press report, Belarus scored 92 on a scale from 10 (most free) to 99 (least free), because the Lukashenko regime systematically curtails press freedom. This score placed Belarus 9th from the bottom of the 196 countries included in the report and earned the country a "Not Free" status.