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Legal Action
August 19
Belaruskaya Delovaya Gazeta, HARASSED, LEGAL ACTION
Belaruskaya Gazeta, HARASSED, LEGAL ACTION
Belaruski Rynok,HARASSED, LEGAL ACTION
Imya, HARASSED, LEGAL ACTION
Nasha Niva, HARASSED
Narodnaya Volya, HARASSED
Semida, HARASSED
Svaboda, HARASSED, LEGAL ACTION
Svabodnie Novosti Plus, HARASSED
BelaPAN, HARASSED
Minsk Economic News, HARASSED
Tax authorities began imposing penalties, including stiff fines, on Belarus' leading independent or opposition weekly newspapers for alleged tax infractions. As of November, at least nine newspapers had been affected: Belaruskaya Delovaya Gazeta (BDG), Belaruskaya Gazeta, Belaruski Rynok, Imya, Nasha Niva, Narodnaya Volya, Semida, Svaboda, and Svabodnie Novosti Plus. BelaPAN, the country's only independent news agency, was subjected to a tax inspection, and another weekly, Minsky Economic News, the only English-language newspaper in Belarus, was warned that it, too, would be penalized by the tax inspectorate. BDG, Belaruskaya Gazeta, Belaruski Rynok, Imya, and Svaboda were handed fines ranging from 600 million to 2 billion Belarusian rubles (approximately US$42,000 to $118,000), and their bank accounts were temporarily frozen. Officials charged BDG and other newspapers with writing off unsold copies as a loss, instead of reporting them as a "hidden source of profit." Imya was penalized for taking cash directly from subscribers, rather than following the usual procedure of having the post office accept the subscription payments, but authorities had already prohibited the post office from assuming that function. BDG and others managed to get their accounts released on Sept. 10, but they still must pay the fines. Some of the papers have appealed to the Supreme Economic Court to overturn the fines. Most of the newspapers continued to publish in spite of the penalties, but those with frozen bank accounts had no funds to buy newsprint and faced the depletion of their stocks within a few issues. Although Belarusian law prohibits employers from withholding payrolls even when the government has suspended the employers' accounts, at least one paper was unable to pay its workers. All opposition papers in Belarus continued to have difficulties distributing their publications through state-run kiosks and were forced to use unauthorized vendors. CPJ on Sept. 11 wrote to President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to express concern about the government crackdown.
September 19
Svaboda, THREATENED, LEGAL ACTION
The State Committee for the Press, the body which grants Belarusian newspapers their licenses, informed the opposition newspaper Svaboda that it was in violation of the press law and began proceedings against the paper in a Minsk commercial court. The action stemmed from an article that ran under the headline "The Devil's Bible" on Sept. 17. The article, written by Alexander Starikevich, a correspondent for the Russian daily Izvestiya, allegedly libeled the Belarusian head of state and other officials. On Oct. 24, Ihar Hermenchuk, editor of Svaboda, was warned by the deputy public prosecutor that his newspaper might be suspended because of the article. The prosecutor threatened to take action if Svaboda committed similar violations within a year. CPJ appealed to President Alyaksandr Lukashenka on Nov. 18 to cease any further harassment of the press.
For more information contact europeweb@cpj.org