One of the privileges of owning newspapers is the opportunity to help journalists who are fearless and determined in exposing abuses of power.
Iryna Khalip is just such a reporter. For her work for Novaya Gazeta, which my family has long supported, she has been regularly harassed by the Belarusian security services. During the last two years she has lived much of the time under forms of house arrest after attending a demonstration against alleged vote-rigging in the 2010 presidential election.
When I met her in Minsk, she told how KGB officers were so regularly in her family apartment that her five-year-old son began to consider them house guests.
I was in Belarus to see President Alexander Lukashenko and took the opportunity to request an end to the restrictions on her movements.
It was important not to let my distaste at his undemocratic policies show while we talked. But during our interview he twice promised — in footage captured by a BBC camera crew — that Iryna would be released.
I hope that these words were not merely a publicity stunt for the cameras. Lukashenko told me he sees Belarus as a just and equitable society.
After 18 years of authoritarian rule, I wait with hope to see how this will occur in practice. But the release of Iryna would certainly send a powerful signal that the president can be true to his word.
Evgeny Lebedev is the owner of the Evening Standard and The Independent newspapers
