‘Bobruysky Kurier’ won’t be sold at postal offices

Babruisk city department of Belposhta (Belarusian Post) postal service enterprise broke the agreement with the non-state newspaper Bobruysky Kurier newspaper, as a result of which it won’t be sold at the local post offices any more.

On 10 April the editorial board received a letter signed by the head of Babruisk Central Post Office Nina Sheleh, where it was stated the agreement will be annulled since 1 May 2009 due to ‘the low level of sales’.

Meanwhile, about 10 days before the editor of Bobruysky Kurier Anatol Sanatsenka received another letter from the same post enterprise. It contained sample contract to be prolonged. The editor signed it and sent back to the post office.

Anatol Sanatsenka explained such bounce in attitude by a campaign of harassment of the newspaper by the local authorities.

‘The legal and economic pressure has become harder lately despite the liberalization announced by the authorities’, Anatol Sanatsenka says.

He thinks those steps can be a kind of revenge for a complaint against actions of representatives of the local administration the newspaper sent to Public Prosecutor’s office in 2008.

Bobruysky Kurier was expelled from the state retail distribution system of Belsayuzdruk in 2006. The newspaper is in subscription catalogues, but it can be subscribed only in Mahiliou oblast.