Belarus sets up council for supervising election coverage.

(From BBC Monitoring International Reports)

Text of report in English by Belarusian news agency Belapan

Minsk, 27 December: The Central Electoral Commission, at its Tuesday [27 December] meeting, formed a supervisory council that will oversee media coverage of the ongoing presidential race and campaign adverts placed by candidates.

Private outlets were not granted representation on the council whose line-up did not change compared with the 2004 parliamentary elections.

The council is authorized to provide advice to the media and recommend penalizing candidates for violating laws in campaign ads.

The council also will handle …