Hefty fine goes to Belsat TV crew for covering street protests


A Minsk court has fined Belsat TV journalist Volha Czajczyc and cameraman Syarhei Kavaliou again.

Judge Ivan Kastyan found them guilty of ‘illegal production and distribution of media products’ (Art. 22.9 of the Administrative Code) and imposed a fine of 805 Belarusian rubles (about $400) on each.

It is the seventh time in 2017 that Volha Czajczyc has been tried over this article. Today she has appeared before court for covering October’s protest rally ‘March of Outraged Belarusians 2.0’ in Minsk.

Volha will not appeal against this particular verdict, but she is going to file an extensive complaint with the Constitutional Court.

“I will complain against all the sentences delivered when I was tried for my work. After all, these penalties violate my right to collect and distribute information, which is assured by the Constitution,” the reporter told Belsat.

This year alone, the number of administrative cases opened against independent journalists and freelancers contributing to our channel has exceeded 85. In spite of the increasing pressure, Belsat TV jouralists will continue working for you.

Since the beginning of the year, Belsat TV contributors have paid about $14,000 of fines to the state budget. According to Reporters Without Borders, it is our journalists who are harassed by Belarusian government agencies most.

Belsat TV which has been broadcasting for nearly ten years, has been denied accreditation for its journalists during these very nine years. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly declared that it could not issue any accreditation to Belsat because the journalists working for the TV station … break the law.

Thus, the circle closes: journalists are denied accreditation because they break the law and they break the law, because they work without accreditation that they seek… And it explains the existence of absurdist Article 22.9 of the Administrative Code, which provides punishment for ‘illegal production and distribution of media products’. If you have accreditation, you are allowed be a journalist. If you do not have it – you are outlawed.

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