10MINSK54, BELARUS’ REGIONAL INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS TELL THEIR STORIES

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Reference ID	Created	Released	Classification	Origin
10MINSK54	2010-02-24 16:37	2011-08-30 01:44	UNCLASSIFIED	Embassy Minsk

VZCZCXRO2253
RR RUEHIK
DE RUEHSK #0054/01 0551637
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 241637Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY MINSK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0692
INFO RUEHZG/NATO EU COLLECTIVE
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 0049
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEHSK/AMEMBASSY MINSK 0702

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MINSK 000054 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR EUR/UMB (ASHEMA), DRL (DNADEL), AND EUR/ACE (KSALINGER) 
EMBASSY KYIV FOR USAID (JRIORDAN AND KMONAGHAN) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM BO
SUBJECT: BELARUS' REGIONAL INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS TELL THEIR STORIES 
OF SURVIVAL 
 
MINSK 00000054  001.3 OF 002 
 
 
¶1.  Summary.  Brest is the most progressive Oblast in Belarus in 
terms of media freedom.  Nevertheless, two Brest Oblast 
newspaper editors shared with CDA their difficulties, including 
having reliable access to the state monopoly distribution 
networks, unhampered ability to raise revenues through 
advertising, and consistent decisions and access to public 
officials, in their continuing efforts to provide an independent 
news perspective to the Oblast's population.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  Despite an array of obstacles, regional newspapers in Brest 
continue to provide readers with an independent voice free of 
direct government control.  During a February 3-4 visit to the 
historic city of Brest, along the Polish border in southwestern 
Belarus, the CDA met separately with editors of two regional 
weeklies, who provided a first-hand account of the pressures 
faced by independent publishers.  According to Viktar Marchuk, 
editor-in-chief of the Brestskaya Gazeta (circulation 8000), one 
of two independents currently operating in the city of Brest, 
authorities allow his newspaper access to local state-owned 
distribution and subscription services.  He views the access as 
"an experiment by national authorities" to gauge the effects of 
non-state media on the local public. 
 
¶3.  While distribution may be more accessible than in other 
regions, Marchuk shares many of the problems faced by other 
independent publishers throughout the country.  Advertising is 
difficult to generate.  He told us that two state-owned banks, 
historically the paper's biggest advertisers, had pulled 
advertisements that month after being directed by "Minsk" to 
advertise only through the government media.  Access to public 
officials is routinely denied.  Marchuk explained that it was 
difficult for Brestskaya Gazeta to gain accreditation so that 
its reporters can cover government events and institutions, and 
that state officials are reluctant to grant interviews. 
 
¶4.  Marchuk carries out his work in the knowledge that his 
operations are subject to official scrutiny.   As evidence, 
following his meeting with the CDA, the Brest KGB press service 
phoned him to inquire about his discussion with the American 
Ambassador.  Marchuk said he kindly replied that he had not 
spoken with the American Ambassador as there was none in Belarus 
but he did interview the Charge and the text of the interview 
could be found in his next paper.  The KGB officer, he said, 
quickly asked him if it had gone to print, and Marchuk told him 
the officer could step out of his office and find the newspaper 
at the local kiosk.  Nevertheless, Marchuk did say he was 
worried that the reported conversation could lead the 
authorities to raise new problems for him and his newspaper. 
 
¶5.  Chief editor Lidziya Tsaluyka of the weekly Gazeta Dlya Vas 
(circulation 4000), based in the town of Ivatsevichy, in the 
Brest Oblast, described how her paper has regained circulation 
rights after being pulled from the state distribution network in 
¶2006.  However, she characterized the situation as only slightly 
improved, with the paper facing limits on subscription services 
and available only in Ivatsevichy district despite being 
licensed to work in four districts within the Brest Oblast.  As 
among independents elsewhere, Gazeta Dlya Vas has difficulty 
finding advertisers, and according to Tsaluyka, faces hostility 
from some officials that borders on "cold hate." 
 
¶6.  Tsaluyka's operations remain subject to arbitrary official 
pressure that can lead to her paper being removed from 
newsstands.  She described one such occasion when, after running 
an unflattering article about a local factory director, her 
paper disappeared from the kiosks owing to technical issues 
involving an incorrect date in the story.  At the same time, 
Tsaluyka has achieved some success in developing relationships 
and reporting on matters of concern involving criminal law 
enforcement and fire-fighting activities.  She also has achieved 
success in niche advertising in the automobile market where her 
paper has a following. 
 
¶7.  Comment.  Description of difficulties faced by the editors 
we met in the Brest Oblast is consistent with those of their 
counterparts throughout Belarus, even though they have better 
access to the state distributions system than independents in 
other Oblasts.   Also upon returning to Minsk, we learned from 
the independent Belarusian Association of Journalist that the 
Presidential Administration, allegedly the President's Chief of 
Staff himself, had called in the previous month the CEOs of bank 
and had instructed them to stop advertising in independent 
newspapers.  That said, the independents, despite the obstacles, 
appear to be playing a role, albeit modest, in offering readers 
a limited alternative to s
tate media, which is especially 
 
MINSK 00000054  002.3 OF 002 
 
 
important in smaller towns and cities where internet penetration 
remains limited to non-existent.  End Comment. 
SCANLAN

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