Hoster.by employees unable to work due to police search
Employees of the company Hoster.by cannot enter their premises. The company’s office is situated in the Minsk office centre Omega Tower – the editorial office of TUT.by is also situated there and is being searched now.
The Investigation Committee is creating obstacles to the work of the company, director of Hoster.by Syarhei Pavalishau said:
"Dear Yuliya Hancharova (official representative of the Investigation Committee – Euroradio)! Are you aware of the fact that the Investigation Committee is preventing the employees of Hoster.by from doing their job? Who will bear responsibility for possible malfunctioning of the majority of websites in the domain zone .by?”
Hoster.by is the biggest hosting provider in Belarus and the administrator of the national domain zones .by and .бел.
The search in the offices of TUT.by and BelaPAN started in the morning. Journalists and editors have been detained: Maryna Zolatava (TUT.by), Hanna Kaltyhina (TUT.by) and Tatstsyana Karavyankova (BelaPAN). Ulyana Babayed (TUT.by) has also been detained, some sources report.
The detention is connected with the case started for ‘unauthorized access to the information out of personal interest thus causing serious damage’. The journalists are suspected of unauthorized access to BELTA’s paid news feed. They may be fined, arrested or their liberty may be restricted for up to 24 months. They may also be forbidden to occupy certain positions and to be involved in certain work for the same term.
