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Svyatlana Kalinkina: We got on hook in run-up to elections

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Svyatlana Kalinkina: We got on hook in run-up to elections

The Supreme Court of Belarus upheld the official warning of the Information Ministry to Narodnaya Volya newspaper.

The court upheld the decision of the state agency that in her author’s column “To the Chain!” Svyatlana Kalinkina disseminated misinformation about the impossibility for Belarus to leave the Eurasian Economic Union of its own free will. The journalist in her comment to Nasha Niva explained that this ruling of the court is most likely to be preparation for the elections of 2015.

“I think that the decision of the Information Ministry is not related to the demands of pluralism of opinions in our country,” she said. “Most likely, the reason is the upcoming presidential election. All agencies are getting ready for it. The Information Ministry traditionally understands that it is responsible for independent sources of information to be “on the hook”, and issues warnings to independent mass media outlets. I do not exclude that it is a hook for us to have us on the ropes.

The first official warning is still in force. It was issued for an open letter to Alyaksandr Lukashenka by the wife of the convict, a former head doctor of Kastsyukovichy hospital. We were charged with exerting pressure on the court. By the way, after the letter was published, the verdict to the doctor was changed from 6 to 3 years, and it means that there had been some elements of truth in the letter. Unfortunately, in our country it is impossible to challenge the decision of the Information Ministry. And the open letter to Lukashenka is punished by law as well.”

We remind that according to the laws of Belarus, the Information Ministry can initiate closure of a mass media outlet which had received two warnings within one year. That is why in fact Narodnaya Volya could be closed any moment.

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