WARSAW (Reuters) - The editors of five Central and East European newspapers on Tuesday condemned the closure of the Belarussian independent daily Svaboda (Freedom). "By closing Svaboda the Belarus authorities have shown they are afraid. The history of totalitarian regimes demonstrates that fear is a bad advisor," the editors said in a statement in Poland's top-selling daily, the liberal Gazeta Wyborcza. The statement was signed by the editors of Hungary's Magyar Hirlap, the Czech Lidove Noviny, SME in Slovakia, Russia's Obshchaya Gazieta, and Gazeta Wyborcza. A spokesman for Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said on Monday the authorities had closed the Belarussian-language Svaboda, the largest independent daily in the former Soviet republic with a circulation of 50,000. Valery Tolkachev said the Supreme Commercial Court had ordered Svaboda's closure after the newspaper was warned three times about "various violations". Lukashenko has clamped down on the media and his political opponents, especially after winning sweeping powers in a controversial constitutional referendum a year ago. "A government and president which shut newspapers and radio and television stations because they have dared to criticise, or hold a different view of the state and its policy, show their weakness," the editors said, adding that weak authorities should stand down and face elections. "Following the closure of the last independent platform (in Belarus), everything is now possible. Therefore we express solidarity with all those defending free speech in Belarus," the statement concluded.