Arrests Are An Extension Of The Stroke

Lukashenka is really bad.

On Tuesday morning officers of the Investigative Committee of Belarus and the riot police came to editorial offices of tut.by and BelaPAN. Several storeys of business center Omega Tower were blocked off on Dzerzhinskogo Av., Minsk. Journalists of BelaPAN were not allowed to their work places. The initiation of criminal case was caused by unauthorized access to computer information because of "personal interest resulted in infliction of essential damage" (Article 349, para 2, CC of Belarus).

Searches were also conducted at houses of editor-in-chief of tut.by Maryna Zolatava, editors Anna Kaltyhina, Ulyana Babayed, Halina Ulasik, Anna Ermachonak, and BelaPAN news editor Tatstsyana Karovenkava. The press release of the Investigative Committee reports that most of them are detained on suspicion of having committed a crime. They are detained for three days; later they are either brought chargers or released from custody.

As it turned out, the appeal to law enforcement agencies by Director General of public information agency BelTA Iryna Akulevich about an unauthorized access to paid subscriptions of the agency was the reason. In the period of 2017-2018 there were allegedly more than 15 thousand spy database connections. Those responsible are revealed, investigators carry out their activity.

There are several reasons for it to look extremely awkward.

First, the difference between free and paid access to information of BelTA is only 15 minutes. That is, paid subscribers paying 612 rubles per month (about $300) can get information 15 minutes earlier before it is publicly available. And it does not make any sense to hack the website in order to learn about milk yield in the Mahilyou region. BelTA publishes only milk yield and official information.

Would you hack TASS for the year 1973 to be the first to learn about the sowing campaign?

Second, if journalists of BelaPAN and tut.by used official information of BelTA, it was done with reference links, according to manners and copyrights.

Third, journalists, even those in charge, do not write reports about each other. But if you are the head of a state-owned propaganda institution then you have to comply with orders. Those which come from the "top". What if you are ordered to write an accusation? I guess that's what has really happened.

Fourth, Article 349 is not the worst one. Two years of deprivation of liberty is the maximum. According to the Criminal Procedure Code of Belarus, placement in custody is applied only to defendants sentenced to deprivation of liberty over two years. Thus, investigators had no right to detain journalists. However, the exact number of detainees is still not known; some journalists have not been available since Tuesday. Owner of tut.by Yury Zisser states that there can be even more of them.

However, as well as versions of things happening. It is clear that the story is not about the BelTA paid subscriptions. Perhaps the state has decided to practice their common methods to make everyone read only its news. Special services may "get at" journalists for three days. The state might have decided to own money-making tut.by and we now observe the first stage of forcible takeover. However, I think the version of editor-in-chief of Charter'97 Natallia Radzina is the most reliable:

"It looks like the cleansing of the information space before upcoming momentous events. I call all journalists for solidarity."

Given the fact that searches and arrests have become an extension of persistent rumours about Aliaksandr Lukashenka's stroke, searches and arrests may be the revenge for intensive discussion of the topic by the Belarusian mass media and ideological preparations for some new events: Lukashenka is really bad; new people are about to come, and they need a clean information space.

Iryna Khalip, Novaya Gazeta