Vitsebsk: Police Confiscate ‘Narodnaya Volia’

On 30 October at the railway station of Vitsebsk the police detained Ales Pazniak and Ales Yemialyanau. In their bags the policemen found about 400 copies of the non-state newspaper Narodnaya Volia. The activists were taken to Chyhunachny district police department of Vitsebsk and kept there for two hours. Then the activists were released and the newspapers were confiscated. This confiscation is plainly illegal even according to the present legislation, as the newspaper has a state registration and has been printed in conformity with the Belarusian laws.

According to the information of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, at present the non-state editions of Belarus face with three kinds of discrimination: economical, juridical and political. There’s no wonder then, that there are less than 30 of non-state public and political editions all over the country.