Prosecutor's Office Justified Compulsory Subscription To Official Newspapers In Lida

The Lida district prosecutor's office replied to the BAJ appeal regarding the “call” of the local authorities to subscribe to state editions.

In September, the Lida District Executive Committee’s letter to the district heads of enterprises and organizations found its way into the press.

In the letter, the authorities drew the attention of the heads to “the necessity of taking steps to implement the 4th quarter subscription campaign to the newspapers Sovetskaya Belorussia, Respublika, Zviazda, Hrodnenskaya Prauda and others ...”

The number of subscriptions, according to the document, should be at least 50% of the total number of employees at an enterprise, the press service of the Belarusian Association of Journalists informs.

The BAJ regarded that fact as a violation of equal economic conditions for the newspapers mentioned above and asked the prosecutor's office to verify the legitimacy of the authorities’ requirements.

As the result, the Lida district prosecutor's office reported that the letter to heads of enterprises containing the words “the necessity of taking steps” and “has to be” served as guidelines.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists has repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that the officials’ directives on the subscription substantially violate the equality of working conditions for state and non-state media in Belarus.

In addition, a number of independent newspapers are still not included in the Belpochta subscription catalog, where they have repeatedly tried to get to, but have been rejected.