Banned sites number amounts to 60 already

Despite the fines, access to Chatrter’97, “1Belarusian partisan” and Lipkovich’s blog, these sites are still available at some establishments.

According to the data as of January 5, 2012 there are 60 websites on the list of websites with restricted access. Among these websites are Charter’97, “Belarusian partisan”, spring96.org, prokopovich.net and prokopovi.ch. Yauhen Lipkovich’s blog and livejournal.com. All these websites are placed on the list by a decision of Prosecutor’s office. And “prokovich” websites were banned by the Interior Affairs Ministry. Other banned websites are either porno sites or terrorist or extremist websites which banned by the KGB. Euroradio was informed about that by a representative of one of Belarusian providers. It should be noted that it is a confidential list. Only either providers or persons who had created this list can see it. Thus no one confirmed information that certain websites are on the list or not.

As of January 6, Charter’97, “Belarusian partisan” and other websites could be viewed at Belpochta public internet access center, at ONT TV channel and in one of Mahilyou schools. However, according to the decree Nr 60, access is to be restricted for all public sector bodies. And the fine for violation is from Br 350,000 to 1 million (10-30 basic units).

In their turn providers do not understand why the list has made lots of noise. Filtering carried out in state-run organizations only.

The only sphere where the decree Nr 60 concerns a usual user is Internet cafes and restaurants. In order to use Internet there one needs a passport compulsorily. It was needed earlier as well, but now a café could be fined Br 175,525 (5-15 basic units). As Euroradio was told at Belrosinter chain of restaurants, clients are not always happy when they have to give passports.

“There can be ambiguousness in interpretation of the law. Every café at its own risk does so as not to demand passport details for access via Wi-Fi. But we have weighed up all risks and decided to carry out do not like it. Some use Internet at home mostly and simply do not know about this law. It is especially incomprehensible for foreigners. As such things probably do not exist anywhere except our country.”