Ministry of Information issues 22 warnings for abbreviation RB

The Ministry of Information has issued warnings to 22 media outlets for the abbreviation RB (the Republic of Belarus) and “similar violations”.

It was said by Viktoria Mialeshka, the head of the ministry's legal and personnel department, in the Supreme Court on April 28, the press service of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) reports.

The Ministry of Information issued 22 written warnings to the Belarusian media in 2014 for the the use of abbreviation or failure to point the body of registration in imprints. The list of the newspapers that received warnings includes Hazeta Slonimskaya, Intex-Press, Hantsavitski Chas, Borisovskiye Novosti, Reklamny Borzhomi, Novoye Vremia, Yozh, Nash Krai, Krasnaya Zvezda, Na Dosuge, Khlebopiok, Vecherny Mogilev and others.

The official noted that the ministry didn't issue a warning to state-owned Respublika newspaper, though many journalists reported about similar violations. According to Mialeshka, the newpaper's staff corrected the violation.

“We think the wide response from the journalist community over the warnings will prevent further similar violations by newspapers,” Viktoria Mialeshka added.