News on the topic: freedom of expression
13.01.2009 Should citizens pay money for radio program in mother-tongue?
Dwellers of Baranavichy are trying to make the local authorities permit Belarusian-language program I Love My Land be transmitted by the local radio.
12.01.2009 Ideological department bans ‘Nasha Niva’ advertisement in tube
In December, after the Belarusian authorities agreed to return Nasha Niva to newsstands and to the official subscription catalog, the editorial office of the newspaper applied to the advertisement service of Minsk tube for placing an advertisement there.
08.01.2009 Minsk: printing house refuses to print Borisovskiye Novosti
Since the begging of this year independent social and political newspaper Borisovskiye Novosti has been deprived a possibility to be printed, and to be distributed via its own retail network.
15.12.2008 Minsk: detention for distribution of independent press
On 15 December the police detained the activists of the Young Front Yuliyan Misiukevich and Aliaksei Savinkou for distribution of the Young Front newspapers Svislatskaye Recha and flags with inscriptions ‘Let MTS be in Belarusian!’
15.12.2008 Minsk: celebration of ‘BelSat’ anniversary and ‘Clip Marathon’ are disrupted
On 14 December a festival Clip marathon of Belarusian video clips was to take place in Aquarium club. However, two days before the event its organizers had to cancel it.
12.12.2008 Court justifies ‘Svaboda’
On 12 December Iuye district court held a repeated trial concerning ‘extremist articles’ in August issue of the unregistered newspaper Svaboda. According to the lawyer Pavel Sapelka, who represented the newspaper’s interests at the trial, the court rejected the suit of Ihar Siarheyenka, head of Hrodna oblast KGB department, as no extremist articles have been found in the issue in question.
11.12.2008 Astravets: violation report for distribution of registered newspaper
Officers of Astravets district executive committee (Hrodna oblast) composed a violation report against an opposition activist Ivan Kruk (well-known democratic activist, an organizer of resistance to construction of nuclear power plant in Astravets district).
11.12.2008 Forced subscription to state press continues
The editorial office of Novy Chas newspaper has received a letter with the request to subscribe for 14 state-run newspapers.
09.12.2008 Brest: policemen demand explanations from distributors of ‘Narodnaya Volia’
On 9 December young activists handed for free the issues of the officially registered newspaper Narodnaya Volia for the last two months in Pushkinskaya Street in Brest. In such a way they tried to encourage people to buy the newspaper to buy the newspaper after its return to the newsstands.
09.12.2008 Brest: detentions on the eve of the 60th anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights
On 9 December at a mini-market in Brest the police detained Valiantsin Lazarenka and Zinaida Mikhniuk, activists of the local independent trade unions. They handed out invitations to the authorized meeting scheduled for 10 December.
05.12.2008 Homel: Kanstantsin Zhukouski is warned for cooperation with ‘BelSat’
Kanstantsin Zhukouski, activist of the Belarusian Christian Democracy Party, has received a letter from the prosecutor’s office of Vetka district. He is warned about unacceptability of cooperation with the Polish TV channel Belsat.
04.12.2008 Barysau: opposition activist is tried in absentia
At the end of November Sviatlana Danilava, a well-known distributor of the independent press from Barysau, received by mail the verdict of Pershamaiski district court of Minsk by which she was fined 700 000 rubles (about $330) for distribution of pre-electoral leaflets with calls to boycott. In the verdict it is also stated that she had not come to the trial.
02.12.2008 Vitsebsk: human rights activist is not allowed to hold pickets
Pavel Levinau, activist of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, intended to hold a number of pickets dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the Universal Human Rights Declaration. He addressed Vitsebsk authorities with the request to authorize the actions and received a refusal signed by the deputy head of Vitsebsk city executive committee Pavel Losich.
01.12.2008 Reporters Without Borders call Belarusian authorities not to increase surveillance of Internet
Reporters Without Borders has learned that two independent newspapers that were dropped from official distribution networks for criticizing the government - the weekly Narodnaya Volia and the fortnightly Nasha Niva - yesterday signed contracts that will allow them to appear in the state postal monopoly Belposhta’s newspaper subscription catalogue and to be on sale in the state-owned Belsayuzdruk’s chain of newsstands.
01.12.2008 Lukashenka signed law on protection of information
On 10 November Alexander Lukashenka signed the law On Information, Informatization, and Information Protection. It was published on 26 November and will come into force six months after the publication.
