Two Fines and Official Warning for Work at Belsat
Today Ales Zaleuski was summoned to the prosecutor's office of Minsk where he received an official warning signed by the prosecutor's deputy Kazimir Kezhun.
The warning concerns a video report on Belsat about the scandalous expulsion of the human rights defender Elena Tonkacheva. According to information of the prosecutor, it was Ales Zaleuski who interviewed Elena Tonkacheva and the Russian Human Rights Council representative Sergei Krivenko on November 5, and later the report was shown in program Objective on Belsat. The prosecutor remind that it is not allowed to work for a foreign mass medium without accreditation.
The TV channel Belsat has many times attempted to get official accreditation in Belarus, but the Foreign Affairs Ministry declines every year. We would want to work legally, and do everything possible for that. This is the official Minsk who keeps the ball in the matter of accrediting Belsat, and these warnings and fines even more underline the need to accredit us.", says Ales.
We remind that Ales Zaleuski has been fined twice this year, for total sum of near $950. The first fine was upheld by higher instance court. The second fine was issued only last week.
Belsat has worked since 2007, as a structural unit of Polish Television. According to latest opinion poll, Belsat is watched by nearly 11% of adult audience in Belarus. More than 82% of the respondents agree that the channel offers views different from those of mainstream state-run TV channels; 74% assessed the information of the channel as impartial (the survey conducted by Zerkalo-Info in May 2012).
Ales Zaleuski Gets Second Fine
Supreme Court Bans Belsat Name for TV
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