The journalist of the independent newspaper was not allowed to attend a city executive committee session

20.12.2005.

This is the information provided by Radio Liberty. Tatsiana Chabatarova, a Vitsebski kurier correspondent, twice asked for permission to be allowed to the 13th session of the city executive committee: first, the head of the ideology department of the city executive committee Natalia Tsarova and then personally to the head of the city executive committee Hienadz Hrytskievich.
The representative of the city executive committee noted that the list of the invited periodicals only had three state-owned Vitsebsk newspapers, and the chair of the executive committee advised the Vitsebski kurier to look for some other topics, and finished off recommending to “have a rest from this session”.
Neither was Tatsiana Chabatarova able to get inside the session room without permission: at the entrance a security guard stopped her after looking at her journalist ID.
For the same reason the head of the regional branch of the BPF Party Kastus Smolikau could not get to the session of the city executive committee.
Before that the chair of the city executive committee had refused him saying that the session room did not have any vacant seats. Willing to stand, Kastus Smolikau was not allowed to proceed any further.
At the city executive committee session, which turned out to be closed to the representatives of the independent periodical and political opposition, the city executive committee reported the progress regarding the development in 2005, and also approved the city budget for the coming year.
That the Vitsebski kurier correspondent was not allowed to attend the session is viewed by the editorial office as yet another manifestation of pressure on the independent periodical.

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