Czech And Slovak MEPs Called On European Commission To Support Charter 97

The deputies feel moral obligation to advocate for Charter97.org reestablishment on the territory of Belarus.

12 members of the European Parliament from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, members of the European People's Party, have sent an official letter to EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Johannes Hahn.

Czech politician, one of the participants of the Czechoslovak Charter-77 Jaromir Stetina initialized the letter in support of the Charter'97 website. Here’s the full text of the document:

– We, Members of the Czech and Slovak delegation in the EPP Group in the European Parliament would like to point your attention at Belarus and yet another harassment on independent media.

From 24 January 2018, Belarus restricts access to opposition website Charter97.org is a leading independent internet portal in Belarus. The Ministry of Information ordered the blockage of this popular independent website without any preliminary warning or justification. Until the blockage Charter97.org had up to 250,000 unique visitors per day, up to 2,500,000 a month and about 50,000,000 page views a month. During the time of it's existence, the journalists of the website went through arrests, beatings, harassment, life threats, prison and tortures.

In 2016, the EU lifted the restrictive measures against Belarus. The EU supports Belarus by means of financial assistance in many areas including business and economic development. That is why in our opinion the EU approach towards Belarus and its financial aid should be made more dependent on the positive developments in the area of human rights or media pluralism.

This year Charter97.org marks its 20th anniversary. Twenty years before its establishment in time of deep communism, it was Charter 77 in former Czechoslovakia, which was the platform of resistance and source of truth for our nations. We feel moral obligation to advocate for Charter97.org reestablishment on the territory of Belarus.