Do Authorities support “Black Repartition”?
17:12, — Politics
An underground newspaper “Pinskiy Listok” is distributed to mail boxes in Pinsk. Photos of local public atavists and students with insults addressed to them are published in the leaflet. “They are against you” the heading reads.
As is indicated on the newspaper, “Pinskiy Listok” is an organ of the city branch of “Black Repartition” (“Chyornyi peredel”) union. Aims and objectives of the organization are indicated as well. They are “unification of the Slavonic world, building of the Slavonic state independent from the influence of the West, ideological terror against organizations, unions and parties who are against creation of a strong, independent Slavonic state”. An article “They are against you” is placed at the second page of the leaflet. It contains 8 pictures of Pinsk citizens, Radio Svaboda informs.
They are pictures of the chairman of the local branch of the Belarusian Popular Front party Alyaksandr Ramanovich, several young citizens studying abroad now, and the leader of entrepreneurs Alyaksandr Vasilyeu, a regional ethnographer Edward Zlobin. They are called “public figures who are carrying out all kinds of propaganda work for subversion of the successful development of the Slavonic country”. The text contains insults and humiliation of people that couldn’t be repeated. By the way, the name of the editor-in-chief, Gleb Leantovich, is indicated in the newspaper.
People insulted in the article plan to file a suit to defend one's honour and dignity.
A lawyer of the Belarusian Association of Journalists Andrei Bastunets after studying the newspaper supposes that law-enforcing agencies have all reasons to ban the “Listok” and institute criminal proceedings against its publishers.
“Firstly, the matter concerns activities on behalf of an unregistered organization. Secondly, the newspaper with a circulation of 3,000 copies is unregistered. Moreover, it contains undignified attacks against a large number of Pinsk citizens, which violates their rights. That is why the prosecutor’s office and police should take steps against dissemination of this “Listok” and search the persons who publish it,” the lawyer believes.
Meanwhile, the acting prosecutor of the town Aleh Lavarukhin says that he hasn’t seen “Pinskiy Listok”. But in case citizens’ complaints would be received by him, the prosecutor’s office will react. “We are obliged to react to all complaints, even when it’s dog barking. And when false information insulting citizens is found in a printed publication, it’s our duty to react,” the official said.
One should note that the newspaper has been distributed in Pinsk for a week. However, competent authorities – the prosecutor’s office, police and the KGB, “haven’t seen or heard anything about it”. At the same time, unregistered newspapers (like “Narodnaya Volya”, “Tovarisch”, local newspapers with their 299 copies, for instance Krychau-based “Volny Horad”) are seized on a regular basis.
