A-Infos (en) Belarus, Solidarity Day with the newspaper "Navinki"! help is wanted !!!

[antyfa <antyfa@mail.ru>]

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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 ¹ 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 ¹ 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 ¹ 11 (90) of this year in materials published
under the heading "Opium For People", and in the issue ¹ 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, kampramat@tut.by


-- 
Best regards,
  antyfa                            mailto:antyfa@mail.ru

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