Miastsovy chas was not allowed to stage a anniversary concert

Pinsk Town Executive Committee did not allow the non-state newspaper Miastsovy chas to stage a concert to celebrate the 100th issue. The concert to be attended by Pinsk singers was to have been held on 21 August in the city part of culture and rest. The preliminary oral agreement was made with the chair of Pinsk Town Executive Committee Aliaxandr Hordzich who reassured the Miastsovy chas editor Viktar Iarashuk that the concert would be held and that he "saw no problems there". Despite this, the official letter signed by the deputy chair of the town executive committee Aliaxandr Kanieuski said that the town executive committee does not allow the "promotional action of the periodical".
Before the issue of the100th number, the editorial office of the Miastsovy chas started to face the newspaper distribution problems. Private distributors of the periodicals stopped taking the newspaper for sale in the busiest parts of the town, referring to the town executive committee's warning about possible consequences. The oral directive from the executive committee banned the sale of the Miastsovy chas in the town kiosks of the Belsaiuzdruk network.
The attempt of the Miastsovy chas editor Viktar Iarashuk to advertise the newspaper articles on the local radio also failed. On 17 August Mr. Iarashuk brought his application to the radio and on 19 August the materials were sent back with a short inscription made by the director of the local communications node Mikalai Rabkaviets: "Return".
(The monitoring service of the Belarusian Association of Journalists)