Internet campaign of solidarity with Lohvinau publishing house

Journalists and political activists have joined the campaign.

Publisher Ihar Lohvinau asked the public at a press conference on January 20 to help him pay a fine of over 960 million rubles. Radio Svaboda journalists posted a photo on Facebook and a message saying that they made donations. They called on their colleagues to join the campaign, Belorusski Partizan reports.

The council of the BPF party supported the campaign and handed the baton to representatives of the For Freedom movement, Tell the Truth campaign and Belarusian Social democratic Party (Hramada) that have 48 hours to made donations for Lohvinau publishing house, take a photo with posters to support the publishing house and pass the baton to others.

Last December, the tax office of Minsk's Tsentralny district carried out an unscheduled check in the Lohvinau bookstore on the demand of the Ministry of Information. It was said after the check that the shop sells books without the licence of the Ministry of Information.

The publishing house's licence was revoked in September 2013 for printing the album Belarus Press Photo 2011, which was found extremist by the court of the Ashmiany district.

On January 9, the economic court of Minsk fined the publishing house 30 penalty units (5.4 million rubles) for illegal business activity and ruled to seize its income for January-December 2014 (more than 960 million rubles).