News on the topic: freedom of expression
06.12.2012 Baranavichy authorities ban Human Rights Day picket
On 5 December the civil activist Viktar Syrytsa and the human rights defender Siarhei Housha received a letter from the Baranavichy City Executive Committee, signed by the deputy head Dz. Kastsiukevich.
30.11.2012 Action in support of the freedoms of expression and assembly held in Pinsk
The local activists of the organizing committee of the Belarusian Christian Party held an action in support of the freedoms of expression and assembly near the central market of Pinsk on 29 November.
28.11.2012 Belarusian Popular Front banned from holding a rally in Slutsk
The Slutsk District Executive Committee prohibited the BPF party to carry out a rally on 1 December on occasion of the anniversary of the Slutsk Uprising.
27.11.2012 Baranavichy: private newspaper “Intex-press” denied information about conscription
Last week the correspondent of the private newspaper “Intex-press” Kanstantsin Litvin phoned to the head of the conscription department of the Baranavichy city military enlistment office Aliaksandr Barchankou to ask him about the pace of the conscription campaign.
27.11.2012 Vitsebsk: Ales Marachkin's art exhibition banned
The exposition was supposed to open on 30 November in the exhibition hall of the Art and Graphic faculty of the Vitsebsk State University.
19.11.2012 Mahiliou authorities ban street rally
The official reason for the denial of the mass gathering expected to be held on 11 November was the fact that the organizer failed to undertake the obligations required in the law.
13.11.2012 Belarusian journalist Iryna Khalip won the Hermann Kesten Prize
The prize was founded by the German PEN Centre. Khalip, a Minsk correspondent for Novaya Gazeta (Russia) and the wife of former Belarusian presidential candidate and political prisoner Andrei Sannikov, was not able to attend the award ceremony, because she serves her two-year suspended sentence for taking part in a protest rally against the rigged results of the presidential elections on December 19, 2010.
05.11.2012 Vitsebsk members of CCP-BPF are prohibited to hold their 7 November action
“The Vitsebsk City Executive Committee sent an answer to our application. According to it, the application was not granted as we were asking to authorize a meeting and procession in the places where such actions are not allowed and we would violate the law by holding it. In fact, it is not us who violates the law in this case,” says a member of the Conservative-Christian Party “Belarusian Popular Front” Yan Dziarzhautsau.
02.11.2012 Yan Dziarzhautsau: the ruling of the city executive committee is impossible to implement
Yan Dziarzhautsau, a member of the Conservative-Christian Party “Belarusian Popular Front”, filed an application for holding a picket on 7 November. “According to the ruling of the executive committee, we must supply the application with service agreements, concluded with the police, the city medics and the public utilities”, he says.
02.11.2012 Another “Dai Darohu” concert is banned
The band from Brest cannot manage to give second concert in a row. The reason for that is sudden cancellation few days before the performance. It became known on Wednesday that the “Sphere” club in Brest refused to hold the concert. And yesterday the musicians reported that their performance at the festival Rock Wave in Hrodna was also canceled, generation.by reports.
01.11.2012 Concert of “Dai Darohu” punk band banned in Brest
A concert of the cult punk band from Brest, which was to be held in Sphere club on 3 November, has been canceled. “The club administration told us they were not able to allow the concert. I think they were scared,” band frontman Yury Stylski comments on the situation, Generation.by reports. The group plans to play its next concert at Rock-Khvalia festival in Hrodna on 6 November, but musicians say the concert is at risk.
26.10.2012 Brest human rights defender appeals violations at UN Human Rights Committee
Human rights defender Uladzimir Vialichkin has submitted a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee to challenge a ban on holding a picket in support of the imprisoned leader of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” Ales Bialiatski.
22.10.2012 Investigative Committee drops criminal charges against Mikalai Petrushenka
Vitsebsk regional office of the Investigative Committee has closed a criminal case against Mikalai Petrushenka, activist of the Nash Dom civil campaign, under Art. 369 of the Criminal Code (“insulting a representative of the authorities”).
19.10.2012 Ex-candidate harassed over interview to independent website
The law enforcement agencies of Astravets district keep harassing former candidate for Parliament Mikalai Ulasevich, who has already been subjected to arbitrary detention, a search and prosecution under administrative procedures on trumped-up charges.
04.10.2012 Baranavichy: picket for the free travel for schoolchildren banned as well
On 3 October Baranavichy entrepreneur and civil activist Mikalai Charnavus received an answer from the deputy head of the Baranavichy City Executive Committe Dz. Kastsiukevich, where it is stated that his picket would not be authorized.
