The Solidarity Day with the newspaper "Navinki"!

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 ? 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 ? 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 ? 11 (90) of this year in materials published under the heading
"Opium
For People", and in the issue ? 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.