Reporters Without Border appeals to information ministry to lift ban on private weekly in Grodno :: Charter'97 :: News

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has appealed to the Belarusian Information Minister Vladimir Rusakevich to lift the three-month suspension on the Grodno-based private weekly Birzha Informatsii, the press office of the global press freedom watchdog reported on December 1. The ban was imposed on the newspaper for a critical article about October’s referendum. The decision came two months after the editor-in-chief, Yelena Ravbetskaya, was fined $600 for the same story.

The Paris-headquartered RSF has urged the ministry to stop harassing the independent press in general and the weekly in particular.

On November 24, the ministry simultaneously issued a warning and a suspension order to the publication for alleged violations of the Media Law.
The story in question was deemed defamatory against the Belarusian leader. In that story, published in the paper’s September 9 issue, Ms. Ravbetskaya described the plebiscite, called by Aleksandr Lukashenko to remove the constitutional two-term limit on the presidency, as "a challenge to society" and accused the authorities of treating the voters with disrespect.