On March 4th , a Mahiliou court ruled to punish the journalist Alina Skrabunova with a fine for her story about the anniversary of Mahiliou trolleybus park which was aired by our TV channel on January 19th.
The story tells about the 50th anniversary of the Mahiliou trolleybus park and the prospects of the electric public transport development. This is how it goes:
The journalist was fined for “illegal manufacture and distribution of media materials”.
Alina SKrabunova tried to prove in court that she was not engaged in manufacturing and distribution of media materials, as neither she nor the cameraman are owners or shareholders of the Belsat TV channel, and they have no employment contract with the TV channel. She also noted that the story was de facto made by another journalist.
“It’s just some veto to collect and disseminate information. Although the Constitution of Belarus guarantees this right to us, while our police and courts take this right away from us. I was actually tried for interviewing citizens. That is, an ordinary conversation between people is outlawed in our country. This is nonsense,” says Alina.
The local judge ignored those arguments and decided to punish the journalist with a fine of 1,350 BYN. On February 24, cameraman Alyaksandr Sidareuski was fined 540 rubles for the same story.
Skrabunova and Sidareuski were handed summons to the Leninski district police department on March 10. The police officers explained that against freelancers had been initiated another administrative case under 22.9.ch.2 – illegal manufacture of media materials.
