BAJ about Hacker Attack on BelaPAN: This is an Attempt to Punish Journalists

The Belarusian Association of Journalists is concerned by the hacker attack on the websites of the independent news agency Belapan.com and Naviny.by.

The attacks were launched after a critical article about last week's "Prayer for Belarus" ceremony was posted on naviny.by, the article telling about compulsory participation of students in the religious event with political coloring.

"Experience lead us to assume that the attack has aimed to punish the resources for doing their professional duties.

It should be underlined that this rough interference into work of independent mass media is taking place in the midst of the electoral campaign when people more than ever seek for uncensored information.

We think it is another manifestation of the systemic policy of control over information in our country aimed to manipulate public opinion.

We back the demand of the informational company BelaPAN to ensure proper maintenance for websites in the territory of Belarus and protect them from any attacks.

BAJ calls to stop any attacks on mass media in order to ensure the constitutional citizen right to get uncensored information from multiple sources", — said in the statement.