Maxim Filipovich: They Just Want Me To Shut Up

On July 21, the famous Homel blogger will stand trial for “having substituted the state media”.

The Savetski district court of Homel sent a text message to the blogger on the consideration of an administrative case under Part 2 of Article 22.9 of the Administrative Code.

“This is the second attempt to subject me to responsibility allegedly for illegal production and dissemination of a media product. They just want me to shut up, to stop taking videos and commenting on important events on my Youtube account,” – Maxim Filipovich told Radio Liberty.

The preliminary protocol drawn up against Maxim Filipovich by district inspector of the Savetski district police department of Homel Dzmitry Akulich, has been returned for improvement.

The policeman wrote the following in the new version of the protocol: “Filipovich opened a channel of video-messages “No Guarantees” on his behalf on a paid video hosting Youtube, and received payments proportionate to the number of views, from this service.”

The blogger didn’t register the channel, thus having violated the law on the media, in the policeman’s opinion.

The persecution of the blogger started this spring for video-streaming of the protest actions against the “social parasites” decree #3 in Homel, Brest, Maladechna, Pinsk. Maxim was tried four times, and spent 30 days behind the bars on aggregate.

HR defender Leanid Sudalenka says that the police’s claims against Filipovich are groundless:

“This is the first such precedent in Belarus. Police officers take the necessary article out of the law on the media, and fail to notice another one, which provides for the exception for publications in the internet. The law does not oblige individuals to register their channels on Youtube video hosting. We must also keep in mind the priority of Belarus' international treaties over the national law. I think that the police in general should be deprived of the right to handle violations of the law on the media, so as not to create precedents, dangerous for society - for this, the Ministry of Information exists.”