41.   Over the past week, the authorities stepped up harassment of independent media.

42.   President Alexander Lukashenko, who is widely expected to win re-election Sunday, is shunned in the West for cracking down on dissent and the independent media.

43.   A government crackdown against dissent in Serbia is in full swing, with independent media outlets heavily fined or banned and independent journalists threatened.

44.   A hard-liner who openly longs for the Soviet police state, Lukashenko has little tolerance for dissent and had shut down the independent media several times.

45.   A former state farm director, he has cracked down on dissent and stifled independent media.

46.   A hard liner who openly longs for the Soviet police state, Lukashenko has little tolerance for dissent and had shut down the independent media several times.

47.   A few independent media have faced repeated technical or bureaucratic obstacles.

48.   A newly formed independent media council is struggling to set up a voluntary complaints body outside state control, but is hampered by lack of funds.

49.   A senior government official accused independent media Wednesday of hindering the civil war effort against the UNITA rebels and threatened to shut down newspapers and radio stations.

50.   A top aide to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic was shot and killed overnight in a Belgrade restaurant, independent media reported Friday.