Russia 24 TV broadcasts illegal in Belarus

The conflict between blogger and activist Hleb Labadzienka and the director of a United Company's fuel station near Stoubcy has taken an unexpected twist.

Media reported ealrier that when Labadzienka was at this fuel station in August and saw that it had the TV on the Russia 24 channel, he asked the staff to change the channel. The staff refused on the grounds that their director had ordered them to turn on this Russian channel only.

Labadzienka left his complaint in the suggestion box but also contacted the Ministry of Information, Ministry of Communication and the chief ideologue of Staubcy District Committee. He also called the fuel station director Vital Kulak.

As today's development has shown it is not allowed to turn the Rossiya 24 (Russian 24) TV channel on not only at this particular fuel station but across Belarus, accordoing to the reply to Labadzienka from Nadzeya Belskaya, deputy head of Electronic Media Department, head of TV and radio section at the Ministry of Information. Belskaya also reportedly said that she had passed Labadzienka's complaint to the Interior Ministry.

The blogger said the following to Euroradio:

"Today I called the Information Ministry and they explained me the situation. Only those who received a permit from the Information Ministry are allowed to disseminate mass media on the territory of Belarus apart from nine channels. Secondly, any foreign channel which seeks dissemination in Belarus has to get a permit from the Information Ministry. As of now, 209 channels have been granted this permission. Russia 24 is not the list."

Hleb Labadzienka also received a reply from Staubcy District Police Department, stating that the fuel station director faces charges under Article 22.9 in the Code of Administrative Offences that deals "illegal dissemination of media in Belarus."

The police have already sent the case to a local court.