Newspaper’s circulation again arrested in Belarus for Godbatka film

The circulation of “Volny Horad” independent newspaper was arrested by the militia in the town of Krychau.

According to editor Syarhei Nyarouny, the nesspaper published a material about the Russian NTV scandalous film “Godbatka”. The journalist supposes this caused the arrest of the paper.

“In total, 297 copies were seized. We didn’t violate the law; the allowed circulation for an unregistered paper is 299 copies. Nevertheless, the militia officers refused to return the circulation. They said they would send the newspaper to a prosecutor’s office for expert examination. This is absurd from a legal point of view. Prosecutors do not conduct such activity. We have field a complaint to the prosecutor’s office. We write that Vadzim Kavalou, the chief of the district militia department, should return us the newspapers,” Syarhei Kavalou told Radio Svabdoa on the phone.

According to Nyarouny, three senior lieutenants arrested a courier at the bus station who carried the newspaper from a printing house in Smolensk. Then the militia confiscated the paper’s copies.

We remind that the Belarusian-language newspaper “Nasha Niva” faced a problem with distribution via Belsoyuzpechat network. The newspaper was printed and delivered to subscribers, but wasn’t put on sale in newsstands. The “NN” staff supposes the reason was the front page article “Godbatka Surrenders” telling about the NTV film about Alyaksandr Lukashenka “Godbatka”, which was blocked in Belarus.