News on the topic: mass media
01.12.2008 Reporters Without Borders call Belarusian authorities not to increase surveillance of Internet
Reporters Without Borders has learned that two independent newspapers that were dropped from official distribution networks for criticizing the government - the weekly Narodnaya Volia and the fortnightly Nasha Niva - yesterday signed contracts that will allow them to appear in the state postal monopoly Belposhta’s newspaper subscription catalogue and to be on sale in the state-owned Belsayuzdruk’s chain of newsstands.
01.12.2008 Lukashenka signed law on protection of information
On 10 November Alexander Lukashenka signed the law On Information, Informatization, and Information Protection. It was published on 26 November and will come into force six months after the publication.
16.11.2008 BAJ Applied to the Head of the Presidential Administration
The Belarusian Association of Journalists addressed with a letter the Head of Presidential Administration Uladzimir Makey to ask "assistance in solving the problem of distribution of non-state press". 15 editors of non-state Belarusian newspapers signed the appeal.
05.11.2008 Svetlahorsk: opposition activists get fined
Svetlahorsk town court fined 1.4 million rubles (about $650) Sviatlana Mikhalchanka, the leader of Salihorsk district organization of the Party of Communists Belarusian, and Viktar Akhramchuk and Siarhei Shavialenka, activists of the Belarusian Popular Front Party and the United Civil Party.
05.11.2008 No ‘extremism’ in ‘Svaboda’?
On 5 November Hrodna oblast court considered the cassation complaint against the verdict of Iuye district court by which an August issue of the Svaboda newspaper had been declared extremist. The judge Alexander Sitsko ruled to return the case to Iuye district court for review.
03.11.2008 Uladzimir Kazeka is fined for keeping newspapers
The administrative commission of Drahichyn district executive committee fined Uladzimir Kazeka, head of Drahichyn branch of the Belarusian Popular Front, 700 000 rubles (about $3328) for keeping copies of the newspaper Tut i Zaraz in his house. About 2 000 newspapers had been found there during a search on 31 October.
27.10.2008 “Borisovskiye Novosti” Facing a Defamation Case
The «Borisovskiye Novosti» newspaper editorial has received a court claim from Viera Pratasievich, the local state-owned «Adzinstva» newspaper’s Editor-in-chief. (It should be mentioned that the periodical has been founded by Barysau District Executive Committee.)
27.10.2008 Brest customs officers confiscate 10 issues of “Arche” magazine to conduct expertise
Brest customs officers confiscated 10 issues of a Belarusian nongovernmental magazine “Arche” yesterday. They were meant for Polish authors of the edition and were supposed to be presented to Polish libraries. A customs officer Renata Nyadbayeva suspected that “the information printed in the magazine may harm the national interests of the Republic of Belarus”.
25.10.2008 Independent newspaper summoned to court at vertical of power’s suit
The editorial office of the independent newspaper “Borisovskiye novosti” has received a summons to the court from the editor-in-chief of a local newspaper “Edinstvo”, which founder is Barysau regional executive committee. The editor-in-chief of “Edinstvo” Vera Pratasevich found that the article “Pre-election concoction, or another lie” published in “Borisovskiye novosti”, her honour and dignity were injured, the press-service of the Belarusian Association of Journalists informs.
24.10.2008 Minster of Information didn’t like article about “elections” titled “Satan’s Ball” 1
Editor and founder of “Borisovskie Novosti” newspaper Anatol Bukas sent a written explanation to the Ministry of Information in the connection with an article in his newspaper.
24.10.2008 “Gazeta Wyborcza” Journalist Accredited at the Belarus’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Andrei Pachobut, an independent journalist from Hrodna has received a temporary accreditation at the Belarus’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a correspondent of «Gazeta Wyborcza» daily, published in Poland.
23.10.2008 The Belarusian Independent Newspapers Outboard of Subscription Campaign Again
«Belposha» state monopolist’s enterprise official Aksana Chychko has informed the BAJ Press Service that a subscription campaign 2009 was started in Belarus on October 15, 2008. However, just another time, a number of non-state social and political newspapers were deprived of possibility to get into the «Belposhta» subscription catalogue.
22.10.2008 BAJ Statement on the Situation with the Media and the Freedom of Expression in Belarus
Adopted by the BAJ Board on October 21, 2008
20.10.2008 Journalist Vieranika Charkasava Assassinated Four Years Ago
Four years have passed since the time Vieranika Charkasava was cruelly murdered in her private apartment on October 20th. The legal investigation cannot find anything new on the case. It has been suspended for more than a year already. The latest suspension was announced "for the lack of the person that could be charged as the accused" in February 2007.
13.10.2008 Law machinery to conceal information about criminal cases
According to a new ruling mass media would not be able to receive information about celebrated criminal cases without written permission of the judge who tries it. As written in the Yurist magazine, the general procuracy, the State Control Committee, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, KGB and the Ministry of Justice have determined the order of informing mass media about celebrated criminal cases and the crimes that ‘undermine the authority of the state power’.
