Valiantsin Stefanovich asks Ministry of Communications and Informational Technologies

On 13 November the Deputy Chairman of the Human Rights Center "Viasna" Valiantsin Stefanovich lodged a complaint with the Ministry of Communications and Informational Technologies. He is seeking the disclosure of the authority by whose decision the organization's website was banned from the use in the state agencies and institutions.

Earlier, the human rights defender applied to the Operational and Analytical Center and the State Supervisory Department for Telecommunications of the Republic of Belarus (SSDTRB), as this agency was to have given an answer on the essence of the raised questions. However, the human rights defender hasn't received the promised answer.

The head of SSDTRB Siarhei Bahdanau informed Valiantsin Stefanovich that the powers of the SSDTRB on distributing information about the distribution of information about the identificators of the Internet resources which are put on the list of restricted access".

“The situation is quite strange. On the one hand, it is reported publicly and officially that a number of Internet resources including the website of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” are put on the list of restricted access, whereas on the other hand I, as a user of Internet services and a regular contributor to this resource, can not get comprehensive information about the decision on the basis of which this website was put on the list. According to the answer of the SSDTRB, this information is secret and closed to the general public. Instead of a substantive response to the questions I was asked to apply to the competent authorities, who take such decisions... So, do I have to look myself among a large number of the state agencies to find the one who had taken such a decision and find the reasons?” writes the human rights defender in his apeal to the Ministry of Communications and Informational Technologies.

Now Mr. Stefanovich asks this question to the ministry.