British journalist not allowed to Belarus

Channel 4 News journalist Jonathan Rugman was stopped this morning while crossing the Belarusian border, charter97.org said quoting a message he posted on his Tweeter account.

“I’ve been banned from Belarus. Taken off the train and sent packing. The Lukashenka regime in the spotlight,” wrote Rugman.

“Let them come, let them look, we won’t hide anything" (Lukashenko, April 22). Why did you throw me out of Belarus then?" asks the journalist.

On the eve of the Ice Hockey World Championship, the Belarusian authorities prevented several foreign nationals from entering the country, including the Swedish human rights defender Martin Uggla, leader of the Norwegian Young Christian Democrats Emil Andre Erstad and an international adviser Line Nordhaug. The police have also interfered in foreign journalists’ work in Minsk. In particular, the crew of the Finnish TV channel YLE were not allowed to interview residents of Minsk.