Freelance journalists from Homel summoned to prosecutor's office

Yulia Sivets and Mikalai Bianko have been invited to a prosecutor's office “for a conversation”.

Dzmitry Dziaboi, a senior assistant to the Homel region prosecutor, sent them summonses to appear on March 5 to “talk about implementation of legislation”. Yulia Sivets and Mikalai Bianko are members of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ).

“The prosecutor's assistant invited us on the phone, but we asked him to send summonses. I don't know what he means under implementation of legislation,” Mikalai Bianko told the BAJ press service.

Spouses Mikalai Bianko and Yulia Sivets are freelance journalists cooperating with a number of independent media outlets, including Radio Ratsyja.

Belarusian laws don't have a definition for freelancing. Lawmakers from the “house of representatives” ignore BAJ's proposals on the issue. Laws on the mass media don't have the definition of a journalist. Instead, the term “journalist of the media” is used.

Lawyer Leanid Sudalenka, a BAJ members, will represent Bianko and Sivets's interests at the prosecutor's office.