(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the Information Ministry’s three-month suspension of the privately-owned weekly “Birzha Informatsii”. The newspaper was suspended over an article for which its editor-in-chief and co-founder, Elena Rovbetskaya, was previously fined. In a letter to Information Minister Vladimir Rusakevich, the organisation complained of the government’s harassment of the independent press in general, […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the Information Ministry’s three-month suspension of the privately-owned weekly “Birzha Informatsii”. The newspaper was suspended over an article for which its editor-in-chief and co-founder, Elena Rovbetskaya, was previously fined.
In a letter to Information Minister Vladimir Rusakevich, the organisation complained of the government’s harassment of the independent press in general, and of the weekly in particular, and called for “Birzha Informatsii”‘s suspension to be lifted.
The paper was suspended for “violating the media law” after publishing a 9 September article entitled, “Treason in the Name of the People”, in which Rovbetskaya said that a referendum on reform of the Constitution, allowing President Alexander Lukashenko to seek a third term, was a “challenge to society.” She added that in calling for such a referendum, “one needs not just to have no conscience, but also a God-like scorn for plebeians.”
On 30 September, a regional court in Grodno, western Belarus, fined Rovbetskaya the equivalent of 500 euros (approx. US$665), a sum representing six months’ salary, for “insulting the the president’s honour and dignity”.
On 24 November, the Information Ministry simultaneously issued a warning to “Birzha Informatsii” and ordered its suspension, although legally the newspaper should have been granted one month to appeal the warning.
More than 10 privately-owned newspapers were suspended on false bureaucratic grounds ahead of the October referendum and legislative elections, in a wide-ranging crackdown on the media.
