The Freedom House office opened in Lithuania

VILNIUS - On June 7, David Kramer, the executive director of Freedom House, and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Azubalis opened the Freedom House bureau in Vilnius. Freedom House is an independent watchdog organization that supports the expansion of freedom around the world. The organization’s mission in Lithuania will be mostly to deal with the freedom of expression in Lithuania’s neighboring countries, especially Belarus.

The bureau was opened in the premises of Lithuanian public TV and radio headquarters in Vilnius. “There are not many TV stations in the world which were occupied with tanks and machine-guns to stop their broadcasting,” Audrius Siaurusevicius, director general of the Lithuanian National Radio and Television said, explaining why Vilnius, and these particular premises, were chosen – in January 1991, the Soviet army attacked this building and the Soviets occupied it until August 1991.
“Working together we can provide more support for the people of Belarus,” Kramer said. “The main interest of the bureau will be our neighboring countries. However, it will also be some additional stimulus for us. The freedom and the freedom of the media requires a constant fight,” Azubalis, who himself is a former journalist, said.

Freedom House was established in New York in 1941. Then it agitated for active U.S. involvement in WWII. After WWII, this organization disclosed the real face of Soviet communism. Freedom House publishes its annual analysis on freedom and press freedom around the world.

According to the organization-made index, the Baltic States are free countries, while Belarus and Russia are not free countries. The mark of “1” means the highest degree of political freedom in Freedom House’s index while the mark “7” is the worst degree for the most not free countries. Lithuania and Estonia got the mark “1,” Latvia – the mark “2” while Russia got the mark “6” and Belarus – the mark “7.” According to the Freedom House’s press freedom index for the world’s 194 countries and territories, Estonia is No. 22, Lithuania is No. 36 and Latvia is No. 54.

Kramer was straightforward about Belarus in his remarks in Vilnius. “The best way to change the situation is to deprive Alexander Lukashenko of his power. So far, no change could help. He’s a dictator, responsible for serious human rights violations. There is a suspicion of his involvement in the Minsk bombings. He creates threats against the Belarusians themselves, and maybe even to others,” Kramer told delfi.lt.

The official Lithuanian position is more subtle. Lithuania does not want to lose Belarus as a buffer state between the West and Russia – there are fears that Russia can simply digest Belarus in this time of Belarusian economic turmoil if the West will not act intelligently enough. “An independent Belarus is in Lithuania’s interest. I have always supported, and will continue to support, the path of dialogue and cooperation with neighbors. However, it does not mean that behavior directed against democratic values and human rights can be tolerated,” Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said in her State of the Nation Address on June 7.