‘Narodnaya Volia’ sues against president’s security service

06.06.2008. Тэгі: administrative trials, mass media, journalists.
Крыніца: Хартыя'97.

The staff of the Narodnaya Volia newspaper and the deputy editor Maryna Koktysh has gone to court of the Maskouski district of Minsk against the House of Representatives and the President’s Security Service.

In autumn Maryna Koktysh applied in due order for accreditation in the House of Representatives. It should be noticed, Maryna Koktysh has been accredited in the Parliament for some years. However this time Maryna was denied accreditation without giving any reasons. The editor’s office sent a statement to the chairman of the House of Representatives Vadzim Papou. The editor’s office received an answer not from speaker Vadzim Papou, but from Yury Kulakouski, head of the Committee on Human Rights, National Relations and Media. He explained orally Maryna Koktysh was denied admission to the House of Government. The editor’s office and Maryna Koktysh filed another complaint, and Mr. Kulakouski answered this time in written form: this decision was taken by the President’s Security Service.

The editor of Narodnaya Volia has sent an official address to Andrei Uturyn, head of the president’s security service, asking to explain how my presence at plenary sessions of the House of Representatives threatens the whole House of Representatives, Maryna Koktysh said to RFE/RL.

Two months have passed, but there is no answer or formal reply from the president’s security service. The editor’s office consulted with lawyers form the Belarusian Association of Journalists and decided to go to court with a complaint against the House of Representatives and the security service.

‘We think both the House of Representatives and the presidents’ security service violate the Belarusian law, in particular, the Law on Press and Media, and the court should make the officials observe the law, laws are for all people. Officials should be taught to observe Belarusian laws,’ the journalist says.