PEN-Center Denounces Shutdown of "Novaya Gazeta Smorgoni", "Vecherny Stolin" :: Charter'97 :: News

On March 3 the Council of the Belarusian PEN-Center filed protest over the de-facto closure of newspapers "Novaya Gazeta Smorgoni" (Grodno region) and "Vecherny Stolin" (Brest region).

The statement, signed by the first vice-president of the center Andrei Dynko, underscores that “these steps are aimed at strangling the freedom of speech and blackmailing other regional media”. Such practice is incompatible with the principles of democracy, reads the statement. The leadership of the Belarusian PEN-Center calls on the editors and journalists of closed media to do their best in order to deliver the free word to the readers. “Fight for the cancellation of repressive decisions, insistently register new periodicals and publish those, which need not registration,” – concludes the statement, as quoted by BelaPAN.

On February 3 the Grodno regional economic court ruled to halt the activities of “Novaya Gazeta Smorgoni’s” editor Romuald Ulan. “Vecherny Stolin’s” publishing was suspended for three months over alleged flagrant law violations.