Newspaper is blacklisted because of journalist’s engagement in the elections

the Ministry of Information issued two official warnings to a non-state newspaper Bobruiskiy Kurier at once. One more warning had been issued to it on 7 November 2007. Having three warnings, the newspaper can be closed down by the court.

The main editor of Bobruiskiy Kurier Anatol Sanatsenka explains: ‘I am deeply convinced that these displeasing warnings are directly connected to the fact that the deputy editor of our newspaper Ales Chyhir is a registered candidate for the parliament’.

According to Sanatsenka, the officials of the Ministry of Information accuse the newspaper of being registered as a countrywide edition but being distributed on subscription only on the territory of Mahiliou oblast. The second warning concerns alleged reprinting of incorrect information from a web-site.

‘I think that the authorities are ready to suspend the newspaper’s issue for three months or close it. May be, in such a way they are trying to teach us the principles according to which they live. However, we have our own, different principles, the principles by which democratic press is guided all over the world,’ comments Mr. Sanatsenka.