His Excellency Aleksandr Lukashenko
President of Belarus

23 January 2008

Your Excellency,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 102 countries, to express our serious concern at the jailing of journalist Alexander Sdvizhkov for printing controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

According to reports, Mr Sdvizhkov, deputy editor of the now defunct weekly Zgoda, was sentenced to three years in jail after being found guilty of inciting racial or religious hatred by a court in Minsk on 18 January. Charges were first filed against Mr Sdvizhkov after he took the decision to print the cartoons in the 18 February 2006 issue.

Fewer than one quarter of the 3,000 copies that were printed were distributed before being withdrawn by the newspaper’s management, however, Zgoda’s premises were raided by the security services and its computers were seized. Prosecutors closed down the weekly in March 2006.

The cartoons were those that sparked worldwide demonstrations after publication in Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper in 2005. Mr Sdvizhkov fled to Russia but was arrested and detained on his return in November 2007.

While appreciating that the cartoons have caused offence to many Muslims, we respectfully remind you that the decision as to whether or not to publish such material is an editorial decision and not one with which the state - and in particular the criminal law - should interfere. The cartoons may have been in poor taste, but were satirical in nature and did not incite violence.

We respectfully remind you that the prosecution of Mr Sdvizhkov constitutes a clear breach of his right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by numerous international conventions, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 of the Declaration states: ’Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media, regardless of frontiers.’

We respectfully call on you to do everything possible to ensure that Mr Sdvizhkov is immediately released from prison and that all criminal charges against him are dropped. We urge you to take all necessary steps to ensure that in future your country fully respects international standards of freedom of expression.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin O’Reilly
President
World Association of Newspapers

George Brock
President
World Editors Forum

WAN is the global organization for the newspaper industry, with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The organization groups 18,000 newspapers in 102 countries, 11 news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups. WAN is non-governmental and non-profit.