Valiantsin Stephanovich: Freelancing banned in Belarus

Since the beginning of the year independent journalists have been drawn up against 21 protocols on administrative offences.

They were accused of illegal production and dissemination of information. Every protocol caused fines from 20 to 50 basic units. Journalists of Homel region were held liable - 10 administrative cases. A freelance journalist Kanstantyn Zhukouski takes the lead, civil rights activist Valiantsin Stephanovich informed Radio Racyja.

"Every month the number of such cases is being increased. In case of Zhukouski such cases are phantasmagoric - more than Br20 millions. How then can he work in these conditions? De facto, it is the ban on the profession", Stephanovich said.

Journalists Tatstsiana Smotkina and Dzmitry Lupach will be tried on July 9 and 10 in Hlubokae district court. Recently posters calling authorities to stop the persecution of independent journalists have appeared in Minsk.