Circulation of ‘Volny Horad’ newspaper arrested by police

According to the editor, Siarhei Niarouny, the newspaper published a material about the scandalous film Godfather (about Aliaksandr Lukashenka) broadcast by the Russian NTV Channel. The journalist supposes this caused the arrest of the paper.

‘A total of 297 copies were seized. We didn’t violate the law; the allowed circulation for an unregistered paper is 299 copies. Nevertheless, the police refused to return the circulation. They said they would send the newspaper to a prosecutor’s office for expert examination. This is absurd from a legal point of view. Prosecutors do not conduct such activity. We have filed a complaint to the prosecutor’s office. We write that Vadzim Kavaliou, the chief of the Krychau District Police Department, should return us the newspapers,’ Siarhei Kavaliou told RFE/RL.

Bear in mind that the Belarusian-language newspaper Nasha Niva faced problems with distribution via Belsayuzdruk network after publishing an article about the film that was broadcast by the NTV channel only on the territory of the Russian Federation, as the broadcast to the territory of Belarus was blocked. The newspaper was printed and delivered to subscribers, but wasn’t put on sale in newsstands.