BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

26/02/2006

EU-funded radio beams into Belarus

An EU-funded radio broadcaster began beaming news, music and information into Belarus aiming to counter state-controlled media three weeks ahead of what could be a tense presidential poll.

European Radio for Belarus began broadcasting from the nearby Lithuanian capital Vilnius with an hour of general and sports news, as well as reviews of the European press and Belarussian and Ukrainian music.

"We welcome the start of this project. In Belarus the authorities keep total control of the information space," said the head of Belarus' Association of Journalists, Zhanna Litvina Sunday.

The broadcasts are part of a wider two million euro (2.4 million dollar) package provided by the European Union to support journalists and the media in Belarus, officials in Brussels said earlier.

The new station is run by the Vilnius-based Baltic Waves and staffed by Belarussian and Polish journalists.

It is currently only audible on short wave, but is expected to start broadcasting on FM (frequency modulation) shortly.

The EU has stepped up efforts against President Alexander Lukashenko ahead of the March 19 election at which he is hoping for a new five-year term, having ruled since 1994 through a series of referenda and elections criticised by the West as flawed.

Brussels and Washington have encouraged anti-Lukashenko activities in Lithuania and Poland, both of which neighbour Belarus and joined the EU in 2004 after breaking from communist rule in 1991.

"It's not propaganda. It's about making possible access to free, independent and neutral information," a spokeswoman for EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said, defending the radio project on Thursday.

The broadcasts are the second such project to launch in less than a week.

Last Wednesday another independent radio station aimed at Belarus was launched in the northeast Polish city of Bialystok with funding by the Polish government, broadcasting for two hours each evening in the Belarussian language.

On Tuesday, Lukashenko called on his defence and interior ministries to "act ahead" of what he called "attempted interference in our internal affairs from the West" during the election period.

The United States has dubbed Belarus Europe's "last dictatorship".

Opposition politicians have warned of the possibility of violent street clashes in the event that the vote is falsified.

Source:

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=109942

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