Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department plans to take in response to the censoring of website and news outlet Charter 97 by Belarusian authorities; and what support his Department provides to independent news sources in Belarusian society.

The UK is concerned about the restrictive practices imposed on independent media in Belarus. We continue to raise this issue as part of our ongoing bilateral dialogue with Belarus about human rights and democracy. Our Ambassador in Minsk most recently raised these issues with the Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister in a meeting on 19 February 2019. The UK joined EU partners in raising concerns about the situation of Charter 97 during the EU-Belarus Human Rights dialogue on 17 July 2018. The UK is committed to the promotion of media freedom. The British Embassy in Minsk is working with NGOs in Belarus to implement projects to train independent journalists, build a media start-up accelerator, and arrange visits to share best practice with media counterparts in the UK.