News on the topic: freedom of expression
03.11.2007 Stanislau Kavaleuski Detained
In the morning of 2 November in Mahiliou the police detained the youth activist Stanislau Kavaleuski. Kavaleuski and his friends were going to the university, when a police car approached them. The policemen told that the youngsters reminded of the robbers who had committed a crime half an hour ago. The students were taken to a police station. There the policemen searched their belongings and found in Kavaleuski’s bag leaflets with the heading ‘The authorities rob the students!’
17.10.2007 Belarus Takes 151th Place for Freedom of Mass Media
Yesterday international human right organization Reporters without Borders published its annual rating of mass media freedom.
12.10.2007 Viktar Ivashkevich Condemns Police Hooliganism
On 12 October three policemen in mufti were watching the entrance of the central office of the Belarusian People’s Front Party in Masherau Strret (former Varvashenia Street) in Minsk. They illegally searched those who went out of the office and confiscated from them informational materials about the upcoming opposition’s action European March.
11.10.2007 Andrei Klimau Sent to High Security Prison in Mazyr
A political prisoner Andrei Klimau has been sent to the high security prison in Mazyr. Since 10 October till lately he has been kept in an investigative isolator in Minsk.
08.10.2007 Smaliavichy: Police Detain Activists of ?For Freedom!’ Movement
On 5 October in Smaliavichy the police detained nine young activists of For Freedom! movement. 12 activists handed out Svaboda newspaper and some more stood with a white-red-white flag in the town center.
05.10.2007 Pinsk: Non-state Newspaper Miastsovy Shliakh Suspends Its Activity for Economical Reasons
The editorial office of the non-state newspaper Miastsovy Shliakh decided to suspend its activities because of a hard financial situation.
05.10.2007 Yury Istomin Claims Justice
On 5 October, after five days of arrest, the chair of Hrodna oblast office of the United Civil Party Yury Istomin was released from jail. He was sentenced to the prison term by the judge of Kastrychnitski district court of Hrodna Zinaida Bartsevich on charges of petty hooliganism (article 17.1 of the Administrative Code).
05.10.2007 Tovarishch Editor Appeals against Police Raid
The chief editor of the Tovarishch, newspaper of the oppositional Party of Communists of Belarus (PCB), has lodged a complaint with the Prosecutor General’s Office and Leninski district prosecutor’s office in Minsk in connection with the last month’s police raid on the newspaper’s office.
02.10.2007 Riot Police Watch and Hinder Social Pickets
On 30 September in Minsk the activists of the Party of Communists of Belarus Valery Ukhnaliou, Dzmitry Yanenka and a journalist Henadz Sharypkin were detained while handing out the issue of the Tovarishch newspaper that was dedicated to the Social March (appointed on 4 November). The detainees were taken to Savetski district police department of Minsk, but no reports were drawn.
24.09.2007 Customs Officers Doubt Journalists’ “Right to Be Free”
Belarusian customs officers copied information from reporters' cameras and listened to voice recordings.
20.09.2007 Niasvizh: Police Searches House of Brama Weekly Editor
Yesterday, after 10 p.m. Niasvizh police continued a search in the house of Ales Yazvinski, chief editor of the independent weekly BRAMA.
17.09.2007 Andrei Klimau Marks His 6th Birthday Behind Bars
On September 17th Andrei Klimau turns 42.
13.09.2007 Does Belsat Already Bother Authorities?
The administration of a new satellite TV channel Belsat has stated that the Belarusian side refused to sell to it belsat.by domain without explaining the reasons to the company that acted as a mediator. Belsat is a foreign TV channel that intends to broadcast information on Belarus without state control.
06.09.2007 Mahiliou: Police Detain Distributors of Youth Bulletin
At about 8 p.m. on 5 September in Leninskaya Street in Mahiliou the police detained for handing out Moladzevy biuleten UFF-BY.org (Youth Bulletin) three under aged persons: Ales Anisimau, Artsiom Davydau and Kastus Yauseyeu. 173 copies of the edition were confiscated from them.
06.09.2007 Hrodna: Prosecutor’s Office Intimidates Journalists
Kastrychnitski district prosecutor’s office of Hrodna has issued official warnings to the local journalist Natallia Makushyna for cooperation with the foreign radio station Deutsche Welle. In the warnings it was stated that the journalists’ materials were tendentious and could be harmful to the international image of the Republic of Belarus.
