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OSCE Representative on Freedom of Media scathing about three-year prison sentence in Muhammad cartoons case

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklos Haraszti, condemned the three-year prison sentence handed down to journalist Alyaksandr Zdvizhkow for reprinting Danish cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.

"I call on the authorities of Belarus to review this harsh sentence and release Mr. Zdvizhkow," Mr. Haraszti said.

Mr. Zdvizhkow, former deputy editor of the Zhoda, on Friday was found guilty of "inciting racial, national or religious enmity or discord" under Paragraph II of the Criminal Code’s Article 130.

"In 21st century Europe, it is shocking to see an editor arrested, tried behind closed doors and punished beyond any acceptable limits only for reprinting cartoons produced elsewhere and that have been published everywhere," Mr. Haraszti said.

"Persecution of journalists for trying to inform the public on important issues is a misuse of hate speech laws,” he stressed. “In fact, the Belarus government has used the international controversy around the cartoons as a pretext to eliminate a critical voice from public life."

Mr. Haraszti also condemned a recent sentence against the private newspaper Novy Chas. Chas Navin, the publisher of the weekly, was ordered to pay 50 million rubels ($23,000) and journalist Alyaksandr Tamkovich one million rubels in damages to Mikalay Charhinets, a veteran member of Belarus’ upper parliamentary house.

Judge Alena Ananich ruled that the newspaper defamed and dishonored the politician in its critical profile headlined "Senator General Charhinets" that was ran on September 24.

She also ordered the editorial staff to refute the allegations in question in the next issue.

"I see the imprisonment of Zdvizhkow, the closing of the Zhoda, and the crushing fine against the Novy Chas as part of a campaign against a team of independent journalists, one of the few that are still working in Belarus," Mr. Haraszti said. //BelaPAN