Brest: Police Hinder Street Sale of Independent Editions

15.05.2007.

In Brest the police started a check-up of public distributors of the local independent media outlets. First of all the policemen ask the distributors to show permissions for selling press.

On 11 May the chief editor of Brestskiy Kuryer newspaper Mikalai Aliaksandrau paid a visit to the chair of Brest executive committee A.Palyshenkau in order to find the reasons for the check-up. Aliaksandrau expressed to the official his concern that as a result of such actions the system of street sale of press, which has existed for 17 years, can be destroyed, because in the case of even temporary prohibition to sell newspapers many people will seek new jobs.

According to Aliaksandrau Palyshenkau agreed with him and proposed to hold a meeting with the heads of Brest newspapers which are sold on the streets. The mayor also explained that the check-up was conducted because the city authorities wanted to put the street sale of any goods in Brest in the European frames and therefore check all street vendors.

‘In my presence the mayor phoned to the ideological department of the executive committee and ordered to suspend the check-ups till the meetings with the editors of the newspapers’, Aliaksandrau said to the BAJ press-service.

At present the circulation of Brestskiy Kuryer is 11 000 copies, but it can become less in the case street sale is prohibited. Among the newspapers who are sold in such a way there are also Vecherniy Brest, Brestskaya Gazeta, Iz Ruk v Ruki and Kabelnoye Televidenie. Unlike them, the newspapers which are financed from the state budget don’t use this system of distribution.