By Daisy Ayliffe - 26th January 2006
The EU will fund a project to bolster moves towards a free press in Belarus.
A German media consortium won a tender for broadcasting radio and TV programmes to Belarus, the European commission announced on Thursday.
The €2m project is designed to increase access to independent sources of news and information.
The EU executive said radio and TV shows will start in February - before the March presidential elections in Belarus.
“The EU is committed to doing all it can to support democratisation and human rights in Belarus,” EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrerro Waldner said in a statement.
“Increasing the possibilities for Belarusians to obtain impartial information about their own country, and giving them a window on the outside world is crucial.”
The EU insists its “broad-based consortium” will offer a variety of experience and independent information.
But observers have called for confirmation that broadcasts “designed to increase understanding of the EU” will not become a medium for European-propaganda.
“The journalists will be completely independent,” a commission spokeswoman hit back on Thursday.
“Journalists will operate freely following their normal journalistic instincts.”
Since the flawed elections in Belarus in 2004, the EU has taken steps to increase support for NGOs and civil society in Belarus.
Although Brussels-Minsk relations progressed soon after Brussels recognised Belarus’ independence in 1991, relations took a turn for the worse following the election of President Lukashenko in 1994.
In 1996, Lukashenko reformed the country’s constitution, concentrating powers heavily around himself.
Democratic conditions were further undermined by the replacement of the democratically elected parliament and through repression of both opposition and the media.
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