Ministry of Information attacks independent newspapers

The Ministry of Information issued warnings to three independent regional newspapers.

Most warning were made for insignificant errors in imprints. Editors are going to apply to a court, charter97.org learnt from the press service of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ).

The Ministry of Information issued warnings to at least three regional newspapers – Hazeta Slonimskaya, Intex-Press from Baranavichy and Hantsavitski Chas – for violating the law on the mass media.

In particular, Hazeta Slonimskaya is accused of failure to point the paper's circulation in two February issues. But, as it can be seen in PDF versions of the newspaper published on the website, the information about the circulation is given on the front page.

Baranavichy-based Intex-Press is accused of violating the legislation, in particular using the abbreviation RB instead of the Republic of Belarus in the imprint.

“A telephone call from the Ministry of Information would be enough to make us correct the abbreviation if it really violated the legislation. But the ministry decided to issue an official warning. It is clearly a demonstration of force, like 'Look, we have you on the hook',” Intex-Press comments on the situation.

The Ministry of Information has the same complaint about the regional newspaper Hantsavitski Chas.

“Firstly, the law on the media does not forbid to use abbreviations. We will appeal against the warning. Secondly, most of regional state-run newspapers use the same abbreviation or just omit the name of the country in the imprint,” the paper's chief editor Piotr Huzayeuski said.

Any media outlet registered in Belarus can be closed by a court order if it has received two warnings during a year. The Belarusian Association of Journalists connects the warnings with the upcoming presidential campaign that may cause a new crackdown on the media.