Warsaw Press Attache Andrew Schilling speaks to Belarussian students on the freedom of the speech

On February 1, 2007 Press Attaché Andrew Schilling visited Melchior Wankowicz Journalism School in Warsaw, to meet a group of Belarusian students, participants in radio journalism course organized by the Catholic Intelligence Club and Free Belarus Inititative. The main topic of the meeting was freedom of the speech, its history in the United States and its implications on today’s media work in the States, Poland, and the world. Andy Schilling described the origins of freedom of the speech in the United States and talked about major figures in the American history, which fought for the freedom of the speech and also for including the first amendment into the U.S. constitution. He also spoke about development of the freedom of the press over the years. He also discussed the current media situation in Poland and the latest tendency of the government to limit the freedom of the press in certain situations. However, this is not even close to Belarusian reality, as students stated, since Lukashenka’s government is controlling all the media in the country, including the Internet. The students asked Press Attache Schilling how Belarus is perceived by the American media and they were assured that the United States supports development of democracy in Belarus and does not approve Lukashenka’s regime. Attaché Schilling was surprised to hear about anti-American propaganda being spread by the Belarusian government to make people believe the Americans would invade Belarus to implement democracy by force.