Belarusian oppositional newspaper "Tovarishch" warned

The Information Ministry of Belarus has issued an official warning to founders of "Tovarishch" newspaper, a printed organ of the Belarusian Leftist Party "Fair World".

As BelaPAN was informed by the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Syarhei Vaznyak, the warning was issued on June 1 in connection with violating the periodicity of the publication. The Information Ministry stated in particular that the third issue of "Tovarishch" in 2010 was issued on May 7 only, while the newspaper had been regsitered as a monthly one.

"At the moment we have a possibility to issue the newspaper only one time a year or once in two month," Vaznyak explained. He admits the claims of the ministry against the newspaper. "But I think that Information Minister Aleh Pralyaskouski understands perfectly well in which situation the newspaper exists, as we have been simply deprived of a possibility to earn money," the editor added. "We have been thrown out of the system of Belposhta, which is a monopoly in newspapers distribution, we have been eliminated from the system of subscription. All attempts of the newspaper to be printed in Belarus failed: printing firms simply refused to cooperate with us. We cannot even print advertising materials, as advertisers do not want to deal with our newspaper”.