Belsat journalist fined for streaming picket

June 16, a Zhodz­i­na court decid­ed to pun­ish Hali­na Abakunchyk with a fine of 35 basic units. She was fined under Arti­cle 22.9 of the admin­is­tra­tive code for ‘work­ing with­out accred­i­ta­tion for for­eign media’.

Hali­na says she won’t appeal the sen­tence, as she sees no point in doing it.

“We were not detained and giv­en a fine to can­cel it lat­er. I con­sid­er such behav­ior of the author­i­ties first of all as intim­i­da­tion, ille­gal game of legal­i­ty and a desire to get into some­one else’s pock­et. After all, the way we were detained vio­lat­ed sev­er­al arti­cles of the admin­is­tra­tive and even crim­i­nal code,” said the jour­nal­ist.

The jour­nal­ist also com­plained about the accred­i­ta­tion work sys­tem.

“There isn’t enough fin­gers to count how many times Bel­sat has request­ed the accred­i­ta­tion.” How­ev­er, it is not giv­en with­out any rea­son and expla­na­tion, and with­out accred­i­ta­tion it is pro­hib­it­ed to work. How is that legal? Or is it such a law that it can be used accord­ing to your own taste and needs?” Hali­na said, out­raged.

The jour­nal­ist was detained togeth­er with the cam­era­man after the pick­et to col­lect sig­na­tures for Svy­at­lana Tsikhanouskaya, which took place in Zhodz­i­na and was broad­cast­ed in Bel­sat social net­works on June 5.

This is not the only case of Bel­sat jour­nal­ists being detained for orga­niz­ing streams. Recent­ly, almost every stream of our col­leagues end­ed up with hours spent in police depart­ments, pro­to­cols and fines.

Fines to Journalists for Violating Article 22.9 of the Administrative Code (Chart) (Updated)