Freelancer Fined in Homel
The Judge of Kalinkavichy district court Liudmila Savastijanava found freelancer Kastus Zhukouski guilty of violating article 22.9 of the Code of Administrative Violations, and fined him for 35 b.a. (7 mln 350 thousand BR, or around 330 euro).
The case was heard on January 14. The journalist was absent, so he received the court ruling by post on January 18. According to the letter, “on November 20, 2015, Kastus Zhukouski, while being in the yeard of house No8 in the Street of 60 years of BSSR in the town of Kalinkavichy, without being accredited as a journalist of a foreign mass medium in the Republic of Belarus, interviewed citizens, as a result he produced mass media products, namely the video report “Pahonia as a sambal of a person’s independence” which was broadcast on November 24, 2015 on the satellite TV of the Republic of Poland Belsat in the program Abjektyu.
This is the second fine under art, 22.9 this year; the first one was handed in to Larysa Shchyrakova on January 13.
There are two more trials expected on January 20, also in the Homel region, against Kastus Zhukouski and Arkadz Malysh.
BAJ Appeals to President’s Administration Regarding Persecution of Freelancers
EFJ president: It is worrying that the government is renewing this bad practice with a new wave of prosecution against freelance journalists”
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