5. Belarus
That Belarus is included in this list is not surprising, given President Alexander Lukashenko's assertion that, "There is nothing more unbearable for a person than liberty." He has devoted his nearly 19 years in power to relieving the burden of freedom from his citizens. One after another, he has shuttered independent newspapers and television stations, used state media as a propaganda weapon, and jailed, fined, and harassed journalists who stubbornly resisted Lukashenko's unique brand of retro-communism. The authorities regularly punish or close media that publish materials that do not "correspond to reality" or threaten "the interests of the state." The law also calls for penalties against outlets that report statements -- for example, by political parties or NGOs -- that "discredit the Republic of Belarus."
The government subjects both independent and foreign media as well as press-freedom activists to systematic political intimidation for reporting on human rights abuses and unauthorized demonstrations. Officials regularly harass the Belarusian Association of Journalists in retaliation for its work defending journalists, and state television broadcasts pseudo-documentaries designed to smear the organization and its leaders. Foreign journalists are not immune from harassment. Last June, Iryna Khalip, the Belarus correspondent for the Moscow newspaper Novaya Gazeta, found a decapitated chicken's head in her mailbox after she had written articles critical of the regime.
With Internet penetration now approaching 50 percent, authorities have devoted considerable resources to gaining control of cyberspace. In response, the state requires domestic and international websites to register with the Information Ministry, forcing many independent print publications to switch to domain names based in neighboring countries. The state-owned telecommunications company Beltelekom, which is the sole internet service provider, already controls all international data transfers and blocks some critical websites, while the security services reportedly monitor internet communications and spread keylogger Trojan viruses to steal passwords from website editors. The authorities have also responded to the growing influence of the internet by escalating prosecutions of journalists reporting for web sites.
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