Editor of “Dniaprouskaya Prauda” accuses candidates of calling to coup d'etat

The district state-owned newspaper “Dniaprouskaya Prauda” refused to publish the pre-electoral program and biography of the Vitsebsk activist Aliaksei Haurutsikau. Its editor stated that the program contained “hidden calls to state overturn”.

Aliaksei Haurutsikau, activist of the organizing committee of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party "Narodnaya Hramada" who is running for the Vitebsk Regional Council at the Dubrovenski district, had to pay three visits to the editorial office. However, the talks with the newspaper editor Sviatlana Shurpakova yielded no results:

"The first time I went to Dubrouna on March 4 and passed to the editorial office my biography and program. Having paid money from the electoral fund, I was asked to come on March 6 to sign the contract. I came, but the editor told me, that I had included some incorrect information in my program. It was about the political prisoner Statkevich: I mentioned him as one of my electioneering agents, but his candidacy was not approved by the constituency election commission. I did not know this while passing the information to the newspaper, that's why I had to quickly amend the data. I did it and wrote a new application for the publication of my campaign materials. They asked me to come in a few days. I came there again on March 10, and the editor stated that my program contained “hidden calls to change of the constitutional order and change of the authorities" and therefore it would not be printed.

The candidate asked the editor to give the answer in writing, but she refused. In order to have evidence, Mr. Haurutsikau made en entry in the complaint book and stated that he waited for a written answer of the editor. Then he appealed to the Dubrouna constituency election commission No. 11 and the Dubrouna District Prosecutor's Office.

It's quite interesting that earlier the candidates used the information in which the editor allegedly found “calls to change of the constitutional state and authorities” in his radio address to the voters, and the staff of the regional radio didn't find anything wrong in it.

"Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections"