Belarusian Association of Journalists strongly protests against capture of Narodnaya Volia print run STATEMENT

Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists strong­ly protests against cap­ture of Nar­o­d­naya Volia print run

STATEMENT

Law enforcers used the riot police to seize the whole print run of Nar­o­d­naya Volia news­pa­per, with­out any doc­u­ments or expla­na­tions.  They did not leave any prop­er­ty seizure records or any oth­er doc­u­ments.

We believe, these actions are a gross vio­la­tion of the media leg­is­la­tion and legal pro­ce­dures.

Bar­ring Nar­o­d­naya Volya from spread­ing is anoth­er tool of pres­sure on jour­nal­ists and the media that has been going on for the past three months. In addi­tion to this, Nar­o­d­naya Volya, Kom­so­mol­skaya Prav­da in Belarus, Svo­bod­nye Novosti Plus and Bel­Gaze­ta are barred from print­ing in Belarus.   

Bel­sayuz­druk and Bel­posh­ta state dis­tri­b­u­tion monop­o­lies refuse to dis­trib­ute the print runs print­ed abroad. Now, the actions of law-enforce­ment agen­cies resem­ble a rob­bery.

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists:

- con­sid­ers the actions of the author­i­ties and offi­cials in rela­tion to the above men­tioned pub­li­ca­tions as man­i­fes­ta­tions of cen­sor­ship and ille­gal restric­tions on media free­dom;

- demands to return the seized print run of Nar­o­d­naya Volya to the edi­to­r­i­al office.

PDF-ver­sion of the seized issue of Nar­o­d­naya Volia can be down­loaded here