One Fine, One Case Dismissed in Homel Region

Judge Uladz­imir Prakapen­ka found the jour­nal­ist guilty of vio­lat­ing art. 22.9 of the Admin­is­tra­tive Code (ille­gal pro­duc­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion of mass media prod­ucts). The grounds for the fine was a report “Rus­sia stops Belaru­sian fac­to­ries” broad­cast on Bel­sat on Decem­ber 16, 2015.

Two ana­log­i­cal admin­is­tra­tive reports have been brought against Kas­tus Zhuk­ous­ki by Vet­ka dis­trict police depart­ment, for two media reports – about poor eco­nom­ic con­di­tions of local enter­pris­es and about for­mer school of Svi­at­lana Alex­ievich in that dis­trict. The dates of the hear­ings have not been announced yet. For now, Kas­tus Zhuk­ous­ki has to pay 45 mil­lion 150 thou­sand rubles of fines (around 2100 USD).

Also, the Sovi­et dis­trict court of Homel heard the case of Larysa Shcyrako­va, accused under sim­i­lar charges. The grounds for the tri­al was a video report she made about bad dwelling con­di­tions in house No 8 in Kas­mich­naya Street in Homel. Judge Ale­na Shayn closed the case through lack of crime com­po­nents in the actions of the jour­nal­ist.

Yes­ter­day, BAJ sent an urgent appeal to David Kaye, the Spe­cial Rap­por­teur on Free­dom of Opin­ion Expres­sion, ask­ing to pay atten­tion to the sit­u­a­tion of Kas­tus Zhuk­ous­ki and Larysa Shchyrako­va. BAJ reit­er­ates that charges against jour­nal­ists accord­ing to arti­cle 22.9 are base­less and that admin­is­tra­tive pros­e­cu­tion of the free­lancers vio­lates their pro­fes­sion­al rights and free­dom of expres­sion.