You are right Fred, there is not a lot of "reliable news" in English out of Belarus. There are plenty of sources if you speak Russian, however. In English there is the Belpan news service with some of their articles reprinted on Charter97.org and on Brestonline.com, there are also a few Russian services that have English versions of stories written. There are various Human Rights reports that have a lot of verifiable information and OSCE committees that regularly report on Belarus. The problem with a lot of this material is that there are always allegations about the news sources being slanted to be "pro Western" or pro Luka.
Regarding journalists everyone pointing the finger at everyone else and even Russian journalists are being expelled from that country so it is hard to know what is accurate or propaganda from either side. If you've been to Belarus (I've been there four times) you quickly realize that it is hard to study this country in the face of all the mounting opposition to Lukashenko outside Belarus and what appears to be a very apathic populace that is just trying to survive. Reminded me a lot of Haiti as it shares a similar status with the western hemisphere's poorest country, but without the aging soviet infrastructure and few international aid projects. Lukashenko's renovated main train terminal in Mensk is _so_ tacky.
Alex
From: "Fred Bauder" fredbaud@ctelco.net Part of the problem here is that we don't get a lot of news out of Belarus. So even if someone is interested and has a general opinion we may still not know the specifics. I know not to trust anything 172 writes but can't vouch for the factual basis of the alternative article.
Fred