Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Black Out: Polish Newspapers Protest Repression in Belarus

From Radio Free Europe --

Two major Polish dailies, "Rzeczpospolita" and "Gazeta Wyborcza," blacked out large sections of their front pages on November 23 to follow an Amnesty International-led protest against media repression in Belarus. A black marker was run through headlines, photographs, and text in the two newspapers, suggesting that a censor worked on them. At the bottom of the two front pages, Amnesty International ran a caption: "This is what freedom of speech looks like in Belarus." The dailies printed their front page in full on page three, and carried commentaries and reports about human rights abuses in Belarus.