News on the topic: freedom of expression
07.12.2007 KGB Persecutes ‘Belsat’ Journalist
A journalist from Homel, a member of the Belarusian Association of Journalists Siarhei Padsasonny applied to the regional prosecutor’s office with a complaint against the actions of the Homel oblast KGB office.
05.12.2007 EU Will Attentively Watch Charhinets Vs. ‘Novy Chas’ Case
The European Union is watching a libel case against the private newspaper 'Novy Chas', Cristina Gallach, spokesperson for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, told the BelaPAN.
04.12.2007 Belarusian Customs Officers Check-up Journalists’ Laptops
In the night of 1-2 December at the frontier point 'Tserakhava' on the Ukrainian border the Belarusian customs officers took away for a check-up the laptop that belonged to the journalist of Radio 'Racyja' Aliaksei Minchonak. Minchonak was returning from a press tour across the Ukrainian part of Chernobyl zone.
15.11.2007 Concert of Neuro Dubel Banned
On 15 November the presentation of 'Stasi', a new album by a well-known Belarusian band Neuro Dubel was to have taken place at 'Fortuna' club in Minsk. As said by the lead singer Aliaksandr Kulinkovich, ‘the club got a phone call from Partyzanski district executive committee of Minsk and then some KGB agents came’.
14.11.2007 Police Return ‘Tovarishch’ Circulation 45 Days after Confiscation
On 13 November the police returned an issue of the non-state newspaper ‘Tovarishch’ (printed organ of the Party of Communists of Belarus) to its chief editor Siarhei Vazniak. The newspapers were taken away from the newspaper’s editorial office on 27 September.
12.11.2007 More Newspapers Excluded from State Subscription Catalog
Several Russian newspapers – Kommersant, Novaya Gazeta, Moskovskiy Komsomolets and Nezavisimaya Gazeta - were not listed in the subscription catalogue of the Belposhta (Belarusian Post) enterprise for the 1st half of 2008.
12.11.2007 Homel: Police Confiscate Appeals to Authorities
At 12.30 a.m. in Homel the police detained the UCP activists Vasil Paliakou and Ihar Sluchak. They were taken to a police station. There the police questioned the detainees and exacted from them 1,5 thousand appeals to deputies.
09.11.2007 Mahiliou: Police Detaine Hanna Illina and Maryna Nestserava
On 8 November in the center of Mahiliou the police detained two girls. The policemen explained the detention by saying that the girls looked like the robbers who had stolen a mobile phone. During the detention Maryna Nestserava was holding leaflets with information about a new criminal case against a Young Front leader Zmitser Dashkevich.
08.11.2007 War on ‘BelSat’ Continues
The authorities are going to do the following: the city dwellers are proposed to replace dishes with cable and terrestrial TV. It is surprising, but there hasn’t yet been any concrete order to remove the dishes. But the authorities are planning how to do it: during repair works.
08.11.2007 Hrodna: Prosecutor’s Office Pressurizes Journalist Ivan Roman again
On 8 November the journalist Ivan Roman was summonsed to the prosecutor’s office of Hrodna. The prosecutor presented to him a print-out from Roman’s telephone talks with the Bialystok office of the Polish Radio Racyja and asked whether the journalist was working for the radio without an accreditation. The journalist refused to answer. In his interview with RFE/RL he stated that he was not a correspondent of Radio Racyja. However, as a Belarusian citizen he sometimes comments different events for Racyja and other media.
03.11.2007 Verdicts to Detained for ‘Social March’ Leaflets Distribution
The court of Kastrychnitski district of Minsk sentenced the applicant for holding the Social March Mikhail Pashkevich to 3 days of arrest. A youth activist Mikalai Serhiyenka was sentenced to 15 days of arrest by the court of Partyzanski district of Minsk. Judge Natallia Chatviartkova believes that he had violated article 23.34 of the Administrative Code (violation of rules of mass events).
03.11.2007 Stanislau Kavaleuski Detained
In the morning of 2 November in Mahiliou the police detained the youth activist Stanislau Kavaleuski. Kavaleuski and his friends were going to the university, when a police car approached them. The policemen told that the youngsters reminded of the robbers who had committed a crime half an hour ago. The students were taken to a police station. There the policemen searched their belongings and found in Kavaleuski’s bag leaflets with the heading ‘The authorities rob the students!’
17.10.2007 Belarus Takes 151th Place for Freedom of Mass Media
Yesterday international human right organization Reporters without Borders published its annual rating of mass media freedom.
12.10.2007 Viktar Ivashkevich Condemns Police Hooliganism
On 12 October three policemen in mufti were watching the entrance of the central office of the Belarusian People’s Front Party in Masherau Strret (former Varvashenia Street) in Minsk. They illegally searched those who went out of the office and confiscated from them informational materials about the upcoming opposition’s action European March.
11.10.2007 Andrei Klimau Sent to High Security Prison in Mazyr
A political prisoner Andrei Klimau has been sent to the high security prison in Mazyr. Since 10 October till lately he has been kept in an investigative isolator in Minsk.
