Vice-President Of European Parliament: Freedom of Belarus Is Not To Be Hostage Of Relations Between EU And Russia

The Vice President of the European Parliament, Mr. Ramon Luis Valcárcel, called on the EU to support the Charter 97 website.

Speaking at the conference "Belarus-2018: the Voices of Civil Society", which took place on June 5, the vice-president of the European Parliament, Ramon Luis Valcárcel, compared Lukashenka's regime’s methods of repression with the "Big Brother" state’s methods in George Orwell's novel "1984." The vice-president spoke about new, twenty-first century forms of censorship and the importance of supporting independent media in Belarus.

The Charter97.org site publishes the whole speech of the Vice-President:

Big Brother looks at you, analyzes every step you take, listens to everything you say, and who you talk to, Orwell wrote in his novel, which seemed fantastic to us.

Belarusians cannot freely express their thoughts, and to state the opposite would be untrue. In the streets of Minsk, where the KGB continues to work at its full capacity, one can hear whispers instead of disputes, and in the worst cases, just silence.

It is necessary to accept reality as it is. Why? Because one of the weaknesses of the EU's foreign policy in recent years is the inability to call things by their own names. Faux-pas words only undermine our influence in the Eastern partnership and give strength to those who do not respect European values.

Therefore, I would like to ask your forgiveness. I apologize, for example, for the words "controlled democracy." It would be more correct to say "dictatorship." Language is the basis for action, and action is impossible without proper terminology. And the language, the words themselves are the source of change. In Belarus, change means the end of the transition from a closed authoritarian regime to democracy. This transition was to be completed at the end of the last century.

A word is the most powerful weapon of democrats which they use to protect freedom. And "Big Brother" knows this. Therefore, censorship is the shield by which it tries to stop freedom. We make a mistake when we do not want to understand that censorship can adapt and take different forms, not just one.

For better or for worse, but Belarus is definitely an innovative country. For the better, when the creative potential of its citizens is manifested, for example, in the Free Theater or in the successful development of the Viber application, an important achievement in the post-Soviet space. And for the worse, when the authorities demonstrate a constant obsession in suppressing all possible forms of expression.

The "Big Brother" (Belarusian authorities) seeks absolute control over the consciousness of every Belarusian: over all the thoughts, fears, desires, dreams. And although, fortunately, he is not able to achieve this goal, he uses more sophisticated techniques. Realizing that imprisonment looks ugly, he came up with the idea of forced psychiatric treatment for those who refuse to be silent.

Moreover, Lukashenka's regime made it clear that the only space left for freedom of expression in Belarus, was the Internet. Therefore, the amendments to the law on the media are not accidental, since they are aimed at ensuring that even a mobile phone has ceased to be a place where it was possible to hide from the reality.

The blocking of independent websites, such as Charter-97, fits to the goal of the Big Brother (the Belarusian state) – to adapt to the present. The modernization of repression is the essence of Lukashenka.

We are moving from the era of misinformation to the era of the deliberately created confusion of concepts. Authoritarian regimes use more and more sophisticated techniques for repression even with modern forms of communication. The fact that these techniques are almost transparent significantly hinders the possibility of action, for example, from the European Union. It looks like the transfer of repression to the digital sphere has taken us by surprise. And it seems that it is necessary to start killing journalists to make the actions follow.

We will not forget that the murder of the founder of Charter'97, Aleh Biabenin, has never been investigated. But we must also never forget that those who continue his work, and in general, all Belarusian journalists, are subject to repressions, which greatly hamper their lives. Therefore, those of us who believe in freedom should urgently modernize our standards for the protection of human rights and, if necessary, expand them to the digital space.

The freedom of Belarus should not be a hostage to the relationship between the European Union and Russia. While most traditional media are under state control, the Internet remained the last hope of those who fight for freedom with the word as their only weapon.

The European Union has always built and must continue to build its policy regarding Belarus, basing on people's interests. Especially when we fulfill our part of the treaty and lifted sanctions in exchange for the progress in the field of human rights. And although some timid progress has taken place, strangling the free press overshadows everything else. Not to mention the death penalty. There was neither moratorium, nor cancellation. And it's already 2018.

Many citizens of Belarus share democratic values. And if the EU believes in the great role of free information in building a free society, we must unconditionally support the freedom of press. Because democratization is impossible without free information, and there can not be free information in Belarus without journalists.

Similarly, the European Union cannot and should not leave those Belarusians who want to live in a more free and democratic country without any support; the EU cannot ignore new cases of repression and censorship, no matter how sophisticated they are.

Thus, in conclusion, I want to repeat what I already wrote to the European Commission after the blocking of the Charter 97 website: if today we do not protect freedom of the press in Belarus, then there may come a time in the country when there will be no freedoms that could be defended."