Belsat journalist facing trial for reporting


Journalist Volha Czajczyc will be tried for alleged violation of Belarus’ media law, i.e. for ‘illegal production and distribution of media products’ (Art. 22.9 of the Administrative Code).

Czajczyc’s contribution to the news story about problems of Lida entrepreneurs was used as a reason for drawing up a protocol on the reporter.

In 2017, Volha Czajczyc was fined 7 times.

The hearing will start at 12.00 on January, 18 in Lida district court.

Чайчиц О.В. Суд Лидского района (судья С.Н.Пипко, каб.36, тел.520783) вызывает Вас 18.01.2018г. к 12.00час. в качестве…

Opublikowany przez Volhę Chaichyts Wtorek, 9 stycznia 2018

According to Reporters Without Borders, it is our journalists who are harassed by Belarusian government agencies most. In 2017, Belsat TV journalists paid over $ 14,000 of fines. 94% of fines for the so-called illegal production of media products fell on Belsat TV contributors, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) reported.

Belsat TV which has been broadcasting over ten years, has been repeatedly denied accreditation for its journalists. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry has 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.

ІІ, belsat.eu

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