Radio station in Gomel refuses to air opposition candidate`s speech :: Charter'97 :: News

A state-run radio station in Gomel has refused to broadcast a pre-recorded speech by a member of the nationalist Conservative Christian Party who is running for the city soviet. As Vladimir Shitikov told BelaPAN, the city radio station`s deputy chief editor called him on Wednesday, offering apologies and explaining that the central election commission had banned the network from airing the speech for the second time.

Dmitry Balakhonov, chief editor of the station, denied that the network had offered apologies to the candidate. "No one apologized as we`re not at fault," he said. "We just informed the candidate that we couldn`t give him airtime for the second time because of the central election commission`s decision. All speeches [by candidates] were examined by the city election commission. It questioned the contents of [Mr. Shitikov`s] speech and sent it to Minsk. The central election commission officially notified us that Mr. Shitikov`s speech violated Articles 47,49 and 75 of the Electoral Code. We cannot but comply with the decision."