Nestlé must immediately stop funding state media in Belarus
Zurich, 24. 06. 2021
Open letter to Paul Bulcke, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nestlé
Mark Schneider, Chief Executive Officer of Nestlé
Dear Mr Bulcke, Dear Mr Schneider
We are writing to you today on behalf of 52 non-governmental organisations from 18 countries about Nestlé's advertising on Belarusian state television. Through your advertising, Nestlé directly finances the state propaganda of the dictatorial regime in Belarus and the associated discrediting of the Belarusian democracy movement.
Since the summer of 2020, more than 40,000 people have been arrested in Belarus for political reasons, and thousands of them have been tortured or ill-treated. Several opponents of the regime have reportedly been killed. Belarusian human rights organisations have currently recognised more than 500 detainees as political prisoners. All these human rights violations are ignored by the Belarusian state media, which are co-financed by Nestlé's advertising.
In an unprecedented act of state terrorism, on 23 May 2021 the Belarusian regime hijacked an Irish airline Ryanair plane en route from Greece to Lithuania in Belarusian airspace. When the plane was forced to land in Minsk, Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega were arrested - both have since been designated political prisoners of the Belarusian regime by Belarusian and international human rights organisations.
Subsequently, the forced confessions of guilt and interviews by Pratasevich and Sapega were broadcast on Belarusian state television. In the case of Raman Pratasevich, traces of physical abuse were clearly visible.
As early as November 2020, the political prisoner Mikalai Dziadok was shown on Belarusian state television and forced to make a confession of guilt under visible torture. You may send him a letter to the prison by NESEHNUTÍ web vlastovky-svobody.cz. Numerous other opponents of the regime are regularly forced to confess their guilt on Belarusian state television.
Nestlé places advertisements for its coffee, chocolate bars and cat food alongside this terrifying display of frightened and abused opponents of the regime. Monitoring of advertising on Belarusian state television has shown that one in three commercials are from Nestlé. No other Western company finances the inhuman propaganda on Belarusian state television more than Nestlé.
The situation of media freedom in Belarus has been alarming for many years. In the Reporters Without Borders press freedom ranking, Belarus is ranked 158 out of 180 countries. On 18 May 2021, the most popular independent Belarusian website TUT.BY was shut down. According to the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), 25 media workers are currently imprisoned, including 12 TUT.BY staff and 5 Press Club Belarus staff as one of the political prisoners to whom you may send letter by NESEHNUTÍ web Julia Sluckaya.
In response to the ongoing repression of media freedom and due to the lack of protection of independent journalism in Belarus, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), an association of 69 broadcasters from 56 countries, suspended the membership of Belarusian broadcaster BTRC on 28 May 2021.
We strongly welcome the EBU's decision and we expect Nestlé to do similar, and distance itself from the Belarusian regime. Nestlé must no longer be complicit in the crimes of the Lukashenko regime and the grave human rights violations in Belarus by financing Belarusian state television through advertising.
We call on you to immediately stop Nestlé's advertising in all state-controlled Belarusian media and the direct financing of the propaganda of a criminal regime that this entails.
Yours sincerely
Signing organisations:
ACAT Belgium, Belgium
ACAT Germany, Germany
ACAT Italy, Italy
ACAT Switzerland, Switzerland
Association UMDPl, Ukraine
Belarusische Gemeinschaft RAZAM e.V., Germany
Campax, Switzerland
Center for Civil Liberties, Ukraine
Centre for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights, Russia
Citizens' Watch Russia Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Norddeutschland, Germany
Evangelisch-Lutherischer Kirchenkreis Nordfriesland, Germany
Evangelische Stimmen, Nordkirche, Germany
Flussschifferkirche Hamburg, Germany
Free Press Unlimited Netherlands Freedom House, USA
Helsinki Citizens' Assembly - Vanadzor, Armenia
Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Poland
Human Rights Center Viasna, Belarus
Human Rights House Foundation, Norway
Human Rights Movement "Bir Duino-Kyrgyzstan", Kyrgyzstan
humanrights.ch Switzerland Index on Censorship, United Kingdom
Initiative Mittel- und Osteuropa e.V., Germany
International Partnership for Human Rights, Belgium
Internationale Gesellschaft für Menschenrechte (IGFM), Germany
Kazakhstan International Bureau on Human Rights and the Rule of Law, Kazakhstan
Kharkiv Human Protection Group, Ukraine
Kommunikation Ost-West, Switzerland
KRF Public Alternative, Ukraine
Legal Initiative Belarus Legal policy research centre, Kazakhstan
Libereco - Partnership for Human Rights, Switzerland / Germany
Menschenrechtszentrum Cottbus, Germany
National Anti-Crisis Management of Belarus, Poland
NESEHNUTÍ, Czech Republic
Östgruppen - Swedish Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights, Sweden
Pädagogisch-Theologisches Institut der Nordkirche, Germany
Pastoralkolleg Ratzeburg der Nordkirche, Germany
People in Need, Czech Republic
People's Embassy of Belarus in Germany, Germany
Prediger- und Studienseminar der Nordkirche, Germany
Public Association "Dignity", Kazakhstan
Public Verdict Foundation, Russia
RAZAM.CH , Switzerland
Reporters Without Borders, Switzerland / Germany
Swedish OSCE Network, Sweden
Swiss Helsinki Committee, Switzerland
The Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House, Lithuania / Belarus
The Netherlands Helsinki Committee, Netherlands Union
"Women of the Don", Russia
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Germany
