After a 3‑Month Lull, Journalists Prosecuted for Cooperation with Belsat

Sep­tem­ber 19 free­lance jour­nal­ist Daria Chultso­va was sum­moned to Bia­lyn­ichy Dis­trict Police Depart­ment. Junior police inspec­tor, Lieu­tenant Paul Barashk­ou drew up a report of ille­gal pro­duc­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion of media prod­ucts.

It had to do with the sto­ry broad­cast by Bel­sat TV on August 22, 2019 under the title«Belarus’ New Chief Ide­ol­o­gist Andrei Kuntce­vich. The Man Like­ly to Lead Young Peo­ple»  .

The police hand­ed Chultso­va the sum­mons to Bia­lyn­ichy dis­trict court.  The hear­ing is sched­uled for Sep­tem­ber 26 at 10 am.

In par­tic­u­lar, the police report says that on 21 August Daria Chultso­va inter­viewed peo­ple in Bia­lyn­ichy High School № 1 thus ille­gal­ly pro­duc­ing a media prod­uct, in vio­la­tion of Arti­cle 22.9 part 2 of the Admin­is­tra­tive Code.

Anoth­er per­son fac­ing the same charges is Mahil­iou jour­nal­ist Mikhail Arshyn­s­ki. It is yet not clear if his case will be heard on Sep­tem­ber 26, as he did not receive the sum­mons.

On 18 Sep­tem­ber offi­cer of the Lenin­s­ki dis­trict police depart­ment of Mahil­iou Yauhen Puhin was sup­posed to hand the sum­mons to Arshyn­s­ki, but instead he unex­pect­ed­ly hand­ed the doc­u­ment to Mahilliou jour­nal­ist and human rights activist Alexan­der Burak­ou, Jr.