Country Watch
Controversial Legislation on Internet Access Unveiled in Belarus
According to the British Broadcasting Corpora- tion, Belarus’ new law on Internet access will restrict access to foreign websites and require places like Internet cafes to report any users to the government who visit websites registered outside of Belarus or visit “extremist” or “porno- graphic” websites.
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Any businesses selling goods or services within Belarus will be required to conduct business by using the “.by Belarusian domain name” and the penalty for violating the new law is a fine that can be as high as $1 million Belarus rubles (approxi- mately $120 USD). This fine is hefty for in 2011, the average salary in Belarus was $2.31 million Belarus rubles ($208 USD) for 10 months, which means the highest fine would amount to 49 per- cent of the average person’s salary in Belarus. However, according to the director of Elab Media, Alex Shablovsky, “The sanctions are aimed most- ly against Belarussian companies.”
Businesses such as Amazon and eBay are barred from selling their goods within the country as well. Additionally, according to the Belarus Interior Ministry, the police will have to power to enforce this new law.
According to
Euroradio.fm, an independent news and music website in Belarus, Belarusian lawyers believe it’s too early to determine the impact the new law will have as of early January. Additionally, RG Media, a Belarusian advertising agency that works with foreign websites, noted the following regarding the law, “We have no idea how it will affect us.”
In a statement regarding this new legislation, Lukashenko’s Official Information and Analysis Centre, an office criticized by Reporters Without Borders as monitoring web content and being di- rectly connected to the president, said “This does not limit citizens’ use of Internet resources in any
way. Their access to foreign websites is not being restricted.”
According to Keir Giles, director of the Oxford non-profit research institute, Conflict Studies Re- search Centre, “the talk of censorship is complete fiction.”
Reporters Without Borders has recently con- demned the new law, noting it as, “a survival reflex on the part of a government weakened by the unrest that followed President Alexander Lu- kashenko’s disputed re-election.” Further, Report- ers Without Borders said that the law is the latest, “stage in the government’s escalating control of the Internet, adding new weapons of repression.” Moreover, the group ranked Belarus 154th out of 178 countries in its 2010 press freedom index and listed the country as “under surveillance” in “En- emies of the Internet,” its annual report on Inter- net surveillance.
The repression referred to by Reporters Without Borders has been at the hands of President Lu- kashenko, who has been in power since 1994. Lukashenko is referred to as “Europe’s last dicta- tor” by various Western rights groups for his con- tinued suppression of political opposition and his repressive restrictions upon independent media. In December 2010, Lukashenko was re-elected to the office of president, but international observ- ers have found his election to be marred by fraud. His re-election fueled wide-scale anti-government protests that were violently dispersed by authori- ties, leaving 700 people arrested, some still incar- cerated to this day, including presidential candi- dates Nikolai Statkevich and Andrei Sannikov.
On January 3, 2012, President Obama signed into law the Belarus Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2011, which imposes various sanctions upon the country, such as denying visas to several Belarusian officials and investigating both Belarus’ arms deals and any Internet censorship within its borders.
There have been some who have defended the ILSA Quarterly » volume 20 » issue 4 » May 2012
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