Britain’s theatre community comes out against oppression and censorship in the “last dictatorship of Europe”. Join the protest in London
Sir Tom Stoppard and actor/director Samuel West are leading a protest of high-profile theatre practitioners outside the Belarussian Embassy at 6 Kensington Court, London, W8 5DL on Thursday 1st July at 11.30am.
Judith Vidal-Hall pays tribute to a tireless campaigner for free expression in the former Soviet Union
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While I was in Minsk helping out on a media rights survey last week, the actual source of the problems in that area, Belarus president Alaksandr Lukashenka, was in Vilnius on a state visit, reportedly excusing the absence of his wife to the local press by praising the beauty of Lithuania’s ladies.
Unreconstructed East European male he may be, he nevertheless left the shop at home – and the responsibility of dealing with me and my colleagues – in the care of his imperious and elegant first deputy head of administration, Natalia Petkevich.
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Freedom of expression groups joined forces this month to investigate the obstacles facing independent media in Alaksandr Lukashenka’s Belarus; censorship made possible by the combination of a number of blunt-edged tools in a deceptively sophisticated system of media control.
Rohan Jayasekera (second left) comments from Minsk.
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