The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

02.06.2010 Editor of self-made newspaper ‘Poklich Voli’ dismissed from work

Siarhei Salodkin was dismissed from the position of the teach of the Belarusian language in the secondary school of the village of Koptsi of the Vitsebsk district.

02.06.2010 ’Narodnaya Volia’ issued with third warning

The previous ones were issued by the Ministry of Information in November and December 2009.

02.06.2010 Journalist Pavel Sharamet questioned by Russian police

The journalist and founder of the website Belorusskiy Partizan has been questioned in Moscow in connection with materials on the Internet.

01.06.2010 Belarusian internet users ask Aliaksandr Lukashenka to abolish Decree #60

A group of Belarusian internet users addressed President Lukashenka with an open letter requiring the abolishment of Article #60 About the measures to improve the use of the national segment of the internet.

27.05.2010 Iryna Khalip: "It's high time to finish all this story"

A journalist Iryna Khalip was interrogated in the police department of Pershamajski district today.

First Puseu, interrogating officer from Homel, familiarized her with the results of the expert examination of the notebook sezied from her place during a search on March 16.

Police experts have found out that cryptographic software was installed at the computer, and the computer also had programs for communication. The expert could not have access to mailboxes of Khalip as "it is necessary to know passwords for that", as the expert wrote.

17.05.2010 Distributor of ‘Novy Chas’ independent newspaper detained by Hrodna police

Dzmitry Bandarchuk, activist of the United Civic Party, was arrested by the Hrodna city police as he was carrying 200 copies of officially registered newspaper ‘Novy Chas’. The distributor was detained outside the city’s bus station, a few minutes after he received the newspapers from his partner and reported this to a friend of his by the phone.

13.05.2010 ‘Bobruyskiy Kuryer’ still not invited to Babruisk Town Executive Committee

As workers of the private newspaper Bobruyskiy Kuryer learned from publications in the local press, representatives of all local media but Bobruyskiy Kuryer had been invited to the Babruisk Town Executive Committee on the eve of the Day of Press and the Day of Radio, TV and Communications.

11.05.2010 OSCE is concerned with pressurization of media in Belarus

An OSCE representative slams persecution of the Belarusian journalists and criminal cases against charter97.org website.

06.05.2010 Distribution of ’Vitebskiy Kuryer’ in Belarus is still banned

The private Unitarian trading enterprise Vitebskiy Korund was left without a license for distribution of periodicals. On 6 May, the Supreme Economic Court of Belarus left standing the verdicts of the Vitsebsk Regional Economic Courrt and the cassation instances and eo ipso upheld the license denial.

06.05.2010 Viktar Ramniou again fined for ‘Vitebskiy Kuryer’

Valiantsina Kismiaroshkina, Judge of the Pershamaiski District Court of Vitsebsk, fined Viktar Ramniou, the founder of the Vitebskiy Kuryer newspaper, 1, 050 000 rubles (about $353) for trafficking 53 copies of the newspaper that had been found in his car by the police.

05.05.2010 Another recruitment attempt by security services

In the second half of April, a KGB officer who introduced himself as Aliaksandr, phoned to the TV cameraman Kanstantsin Zamirouski and invited him for a meeting. As far as the latter couldn’t guess about the reasons for the meeting, it happened in a building in Karl Marx Street.

05.05.2010 Belarusian internet cafes bound to store users’ browsing history

This requirement is contained in the decree of the government number 647 of 29 April 2010.

03.05.2010 Another criminal case concerning Charter’97

The General Procuracy of Belarus allegedly discovered insults and defamation in comments to articles at www.charter97.org website. It has been stated today at a press-conference by a journalist of charter97.org website Natallia Radzina.

29.04.2010 Journalist and editor of Hantsavichy independent newspaper warned

On 26 April junior counselor of justice Siarhei Dzezhka, prosecutor of Hantsavichy district, issued an official warning to Aliaksei Bely, editor-in-chief of the ‘Hantsavitski chas’ independent newspaper and the paper’s journalist Katsiaryna Kurlovich, for allegedly publishing false information on the local council elections in the paper’s issue of 16 April 2010, the press-service of the Belarusian Association of Journalists reports.