Information Ministry Warns Nasha Niva

The web­site explains that the com­ments: con­tained sharp crit­i­cism of the incum­bent author­i­ties; pub­lished the sched­ule of planned unsanc­tioned actions of “not-par­a­sites” in the regions; gave sharp assess­ment of the phys­i­cal state of the incum­bent rep­re­sen­ta­tives of pow­er; sharply crit­i­cized the deten­tions of activists, in par­tic­u­lar the vio­lent deten­tion of Zmitser Dashke­vich in the street by plain-clothed police­men; sharp crit­i­cism of the mon­u­ment to a his­tor­i­cal police­man in Min­sk cen­ter and sup­port of the per­for­mance (‘”hang­ing” the police­man) imple­ment­ed by left­ist activists.

The edi­to­r­i­al office iin­formed that the com­ments under con­sid­er­a­tion had been delet­ed. NN informs also that com­ments on the web­site are pre­mod­er­at­ed: edi­tors process around 1200 cmments a day, and delete around 20 per cent of them. The edi­to­r­i­al office called on its read­ers to keep calm, promised harsh­er mod­er­a­tion; dubi­ous com­ments will be delet­ed, because empires fall, but the news­pa­per has to sur­vive. 

We remind that accord­ing to law, a web­site edi­to­r­i­al office is respon­si­ble for com­ments of its vis­i­tors.

Two warn­ings give the Infor­ma­tion Min­istry the right to sue a news­pa­per edi­to­r­i­al office in court to close it down.

Any­way, the exist­ing leg­is­la­tion allows the Min­istry to block a web­site with its own extra-judi­cial deci­sion.

Min­istry of Infor­ma­tion Warns TUT.by Por­tal