August 10th, 2011
Two of the few remaining independent newspapers in
Belarus have each been
fined 14m roubles (1,704 GBP) for minor infractions. Last month a legal bid to have them closed was withdrawn but both papers were warned of possible prosecutions that could lead to fines.
Nasha Niva received was fined for failing to show its registration number in one of its latest issues, while
Narodnaya Volya received a warning for getting a date wrong in a recent issue. Independent media in Belarus have received a torrent of warnings over their political coverage since the
11 April Minsk metro bombing.
April 28th, 2011
On Wednesday (27 April) authorities in
Belarus closed two independent newspapers, Nasha Niva and Narodnaya Volya. The Information Ministry said it acted after
repeatedly warning both newspapers over their political coverage in the last year. In a separate incident yesterday (27 April), opposition leader Dimitry Bondarenko was found
guilty of organising a rally in December to protest the election results which extended President Alexander Lukashenko’s term in office. The court has sentenced him to two years in prison.
April 19th, 2010
Belarus: The Ministry of Information has
refused to register the newspaper
Silnye Novosti Gomelya, run by the Pechatnoe Slovo company, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists. The refusal was justified on the basis that the editor’s qualifications did not meet the Ministry’s requirements. According to the BAJ, at least eight newspapers have been denied registration by the government since the autumn of 2009. The news coincides with reports that a journalist and candidate for the city council in the town of Babruisk
was beaten by police for raising the white-red flag of the Belarusian People’s Republic, a symbol of protest against the government of President Alexander Lukashenko. His trial continues.
Last week, pro-government activists
held a picket in front of the offices of the opposition “Narodnaya Volya” newspaper over an extract they published from Illya Kopyl’s book Nyabyshyna, which documents activity of Soviet guerillas in the period of Nazi occupation. In other news, Maxim Vunyarski, an activist for the European Belarus movement, is to
face trial for participating in a rally for Solidarity Day on March 16.
