Entrepreneurs in Minsk demand live air time on television

Participants of Monday's protest that was staged on Kastrychnitskaya Square in Minsk against crackdown on sole entrepreneurs demanded air time on Belarusian television and a fair coverage of their activities.

They wanted to deliver a petition outlining the demands to Ryhor Kisyalyow, head of the state-controlled ONT television network, but police barred them from marching to Kamunistychnaya Street where his office is located.

"Because of false information regularly broadcast on television about sole entrepreneurs we want to restore justice and be given at least 30 minutes of live air time to express our opinion and tell people about the real state of affairs," small business activist Viktar Harbachow told the crowd of some 50 people on the central square.

The petition reads that the broadcast media "adds fuel to the flames, by going nearly so far as to depict entrepreneurs as criminals who sleep and dream about how they could deceive their dear state."

"We say that it is not true. In fact, sole entrepreneurs are exemplary taxpayers who pay taxes before they earn a rubel for their families," it says.

When demonstrators headed toward Kamunistychnaya Street police blocked their way. An elderly man attempted to provoke scuffles, by pushing some of participants into the traffic way. Police intervened, but the man returned back in several minutes and started attacking journalists. Police had to intervene again.

Mr. Harbachow told BelaPAN following the protest that they would send copies of the petition to the ONT and First Channel networks.