Administration of FM-Station Radio-Minsk Prohibits Musical Program Dozen of Hits Hosted by Aleh Khamenka

According to RFE/RL

The musical program Dozen of Hits was broadcasted by Radio-Minsk at 11 p.m. on Fridays. It was prepared according to the results of the voting at a web-site and was one of the most popular FM-programs.

The administration of the radio stated that the official reason for closing of this program was the non-conformity of the Belarusian hit-parade to the future plans for development of Radio-Minsk. However, the host is sure of the political nature of this decision.

‘I had a meeting with a vice-director of Radio-Minsk. He said that my program was closed because of allegedly low artistic quality. I reminded that this program has many times been called one of the most popular and high-quality programs. That’s why several days later to formulation changed to ‘because of inconformity to the plans for the future development of the radio station’. In fact, my friends said that the administration listened to the draft versions of the new programs that featured the songs by N.R.M. and other rock-groups that were devoted to the latest events in Minsk and Belarus,’ said Mr Khamenka.

The vice-director of Radio-Minsk Andrei Anisimau refused to comment on the liquidation of the program. According to Mr Khamenka, the program won’t disappear. Soon it will be broadcasted to Belarus by one of the foreign radio stations.

Before this another program of Aleh Khamenka, Teachers’, was prohibited. It was broadcasted by the state TV channel Lad. His band, Palats, was fired from the state enterprise Belconcert for playing at the opposition’s meeting of 21 July 2005. Palats, N.R.M, Neuro Dubel were also blacklisted by the authorities for participation in the concert that took place at the meeting.