In mid-April Ministry of Information issued warnings to the editorial offices of the independent newspapers Narodnaia volia, Borisovskiye novosti and Volnaie Hlybokaie
In addition, according to the information disclosed by the Belarusian Association of Journalists, tax agents have been auditing the editorial offices of several independent periodicals recently.
The warning served to the Narodnaia volia is dated 13 April and signed by the Minister of Information Uladzimir Rusakievich. The warning is put down to 2 articles printed in March. The first article was printed on 3 March under the title of Virtual war of granddaughter against grandmother. The Ministry of Information believed that the author (A.Sivy) published the materials of the unfinished legal case without the written permission of the judge. On 31 March the newspaper published "Address to the Afghan War Veterans" by the leader of the Yury Zakharanka movement Homeland Defenders A.Volchak. The Ministry of Information argued that this was dissemination of information on behalf of an unregistered association. Thus, in the opinion of the registration authority, the editorial office twice violated the demands of Article 5 On the press and other Media".
The independent Borisovskie novosti, according to the Ministry of Information, violated several articles of the media legislation. The periodical is accused of failure to inform in writing the Ministry of the change in the distribution territory (Article 11), of publishing advertisements which had no confirmation of the advertiser's right to perform licensed activity (Article 30) and of providing inaccurate imprint on the newspaper and using non-standard fonts (Article 26). The editorial office received a warning on 15 April, which was signed by the first deputy Minister of Information Lilia Ananich.
The 15 April warning issued to the founder of the editorial newspaper Volnaie Hlybokaie was based on the same claims. The publication is accused of changing the publication language to Russian and Belarusian (instead of Belarusian) without informing the registration authority; publishing advertisements related to licensed types of activity without indicating the license number, and also violating the publication imprint standards.