The Solidarity Day with the newspaper "Navinki"!
by A-Telegraf 4:40pm Sun May 25 '03 article#5244


The Belarusian government has begun a purposeful campaign to close the only independent Belarusian newspaper published by anarchists.

The Belarusian government has begun a purposeful campaign to close the only independent Belarusian newspaper published by anarchists. Moreover, the newspaper "Navinki", which has been published for 5 years already, is the only newspaper of the political satire in the country
and it criticises both the authoritarian regime and the movement in opposition. But today the independent position isn't what the government wants.

On the 20th of May Pauluk Kanavalchyk, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Navinki", was summoned. According to the article 172-1 "Distribution of information known to be unfounded that discredits honour and dignity of the president", the general prosecutor instituted proceedings against him for the article "The Second Belarusian
Connotative Revolution" published in the issue ¨k 7 (86) of the 20th of March 2003. It was a semiotic article - a satirical research on the attitude of OSCE to Lukashenko before and after taking up the Belarusian parliament to PACE. After a short court session, where the Mass Media and linguistic experts were refused to attend, Pauluk
Kanavalchyk was sentenced to a fine in amount of 700 Euro (that is about 7 average salaries in Belarus).

On the next day of the 21st of May our newspaper got a written caution of the Ministry of Information on the same ground for the offence against the article 5 of "The law about the press and other means of Mass Media" committed in the issue ¨k 7 (86) of this year "by publication of two photographs of the president of the Republic of Belarus with the comments of an insulting type."

And on the 22nd of May our newspaper got one more written caution for the offence against the article 5 of "The law about the press" committed in the issue ¨k 11 (90) of this year in materials published under the heading "Opium For People", and in the issue ¨k 8 (87) of this year for the heading on the page "Analysis", which "encroach on the
people's morality."

According to the Belarusian laws, after two cautions have been pronounced, a newspaper can be closed. As the court session and two cautions for articles, which were published one and two months ago correspondingly, go after one another, we can make a conclusion that it is a planned campaign to close the newspaper "Navinki". This fact is a
next crying breach of freedom of speech in Belarus, where several independent newspapers have been already closed. Today it's our newspaper's turn, but we will not give up and we are going to bring an action for all three cases.

We are appealing to everyone who comes against authoritarianism and breach of human rights. Today we need your support, and we ask you to show your solidarity with the newspaper "Navinki" and conduct actions against breach of freedom of speech in Belarus. We ask you to conduct
the International Day of Solidarity with the newspaper "Navinki" near Embassies of the Republic of Belarus in your country on the 29th of May (Thursday), conduct protest actions in defence of freedom of speech in
Belarus and support the only independent political newspaper in Belarus published by anarchists.

These appeals are addressed to anarchists of Moscow, Kiev, Warsaw, Prague, Berlin, London and other European cities. Please, inform both Mass Media of your country and leading Belarusian newspapers about conducted actions. Send your information to the following e-mails:
 baj@unibel.by,  mail@belapan.com,  bdg@bdg.unibel.by,  bg@bg.org.by,  root@br.minsk.by,  nn@promedia.by