Ministry of Information issued “Narodnaya Volya” second warning in year

Under Belarusian law, the independent newspaper faces threats of closing.

On December 24, the Ministry of Information issued a warning to the public and political newspaper “Narodnaya Volya” for spreading allegedly untrue information, the press service of the Belarusian Association of Journalists reports.

This violation falls under article 4 of the Law on Mass Media. A reason for the sanctions was an article in the issue 193–194 of “Narodnaya Volya” of December 11–14, containing a list of sales points of Belsoyuzoechat offering most favourable conditions for subscription for the paper. This type of subscription is cheaper than subscription via post offices. “NV” called these conditions a “preferential tariff”.

The Ministry of Information considers this phrase a violation. “According to the information given by Belsouyuzpechat company (...), these data do not correspond to the facts, as the above mentioned organization renders services for accepting subscription for printed media outlets on the ground of the tariff set by the Ministry of Information. The newspaper “Narodnaya Volya” doesn’t have any preferences,” says the document signed by the newly appointed minister of information Aleh Pralyaskouski.

This is the second warning to the news paper this year. We remind that “NV” got a written warning on November 17 for the article “Don’t hinder others to uphold freedom” (“Point of view” column, № № 169–70 of October 30–November 2). According to the Ministry, the article contained a “call to hinder lawful activity of the Central Election Commission and a call to extremist activity”.

In the article signed by a reader Ihar Draka it is written that in case of rigging election results in 2011 Belarusians should defend their choice at the square. To gather 100,000 people on the square, the work with voters should be started now. It is also written in the article about the necessity to nominate a single oppositional candidate.

Article 51, item 2.2 of the Law on Mass Media provides for suspending publishing a media outlet if it has been issued two or more warnings for a period of a year.