Andrzej Pisalnik is warned again :: Charter'97 :: News

On November 2 Hrodna Leninski District Office of Public Prosecutor pronounced an official warning to Andrzej Pisalnik for "having insulted Belarusian people" in one of his articles. During his interview to BAJ Andrzej Pisalnik mentioned the fact that his article was published in a foreign edition.

The reason for the warning was Andrzej Pisalnik`s article "Aliaksandar Ryhoravich`s Poles" that had been published in # 21 of "Glos znad Niemna" printed in Poland. Mr.Urublyeuski, the public prosecutor who signed the warning, considered that this article "disgraced" Belarusian citizens and the present head of the Union of Poles in Belarus Mr. Luchnik. If the journalist continues writing articles of this kind the Office of Public Prosecutor will call him to account for it " in accordance with established procedure". In the Office of Public Prosecutor Andrzej Pisalnik was told that his actions may be interpreted as a violation of art. 130 of the Criminal Code.

This has been a second warning pronounced to Andrzej Pisalnik lately: on September 29 he was warned that it was inadmissible for him to call himself the editor-in-chief of the Union of Poles` weekly "Glos znad Niemna".

Andrzej Pisalnik is already a suspect in one criminal case (together with Andrzej Pachobut he is suspected of threats directed against the head of Shchuchyn Polish House (art. 185 of the Criminal Code of RB)).

Andrzej Pisalnik stresses the fact that in the warning "Glos znad Niemna" is mentioned as "a newspaper of the Polish Republic": this means that the Office of Public Prosecutor applied sanctions for an article printed in a foreign edition knowingly.
The journalist is worried about this fact because he works for one more Polish edition - "Rzeczpospolita". "I published articles on many topics that are not approved by Belarusian authorities in this edition. Still, there has been no warnings yet", - says A.Pisalnik. He thinks that Belarusian authorities are trying to stop the printing of "Glos znad Niemna" in Poland because this newspaper has a great influence on Belarusian Poles.

There were some other people called to account for their statements in foreign mass media - the head of UCP Anatol Lyabedzka (for taking part in some programmes of "Russia" TV-channel (namely "Zerkalo" and "Vesti Nedeli"), the deputy head of BHC Harry Pahaniajla (for an interview about political changes in Belarus to a Swedish TV-channel "ТV-4").