Belarus blacklists six papers

2004-09-07 08:52

Minsk - Authorities in the former Soviet republic of Belarus have suspended six independent newspapers over the past two weeks, the country's journalists' association said.

The Vremya newspaper was closed down for changing its legal address, while the Predprinimatelskaya Gazeta suffered the same fate for including political themes in its mainly industrial and judicial coverage, the association's chair Zhanna Litvina said.

Novaya Gazeta Smorgony "was closed for three weeks for a laughable reason - the fact that a businessman is publishing it. There are six other businessmen publishing newspapers in the country", the newspaper's chief editor Romuald Ulan fumed.

Other blacklisted newspapers included the Navinki satirical newspaper and two advertising publications, Litvina said.

"Our authorities bear only those publications which parrot their words," Litvina said.

Belarus has cracked down on media freedoms under the diplomatically isolated regime of President Alexander Lukashenko.

Local independent newspapers have been shut down and Lukashenko has frequently bristled at Russian television coverage - which his republic receives - of his policies and frequent police crackdowns on opposition demonstrations.

"This is a purely political decision - they are clearing the information field before parliamentary elections and the referendum on Lukashenko's lifetime right to be elected president," Navinki's editor Pavlyuk Kavalchik said.

In a nationally televised press conference in July, Lukashenko said he would run again for a third term - banned by the constitution - if his nation of 10 million lets him.

- AFP