BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

20/11/2006

Belarusian Postal Service Refuses To Distribute Nonstate Newspapers

Belposhta, Belarus's state postal service that holds a monopoly over the distribution of subscription periodicals, has denied distribution in the first six months of 2007 to major nationwide independent newspapers and many local independent newspapers, Belapan reported on November 17, quoting Zoya Mardas from the Belarusian Association of Journalists. In particular, Belposhta rejected the nationwide newspapers "Narodnya volya," "Nasha Niva," "Tovarishch," and "Svobodnye novosti plus," as well as the local newspapers "Brestsky kurer," "Vitebsky kurer," "Borisovskie novosti," "Gazeta slonimskaya," "Volnaye Hlybokaye," "Hantsavitski chas," and "Myastsovy chas." "To requests by the publications to enter them in the Belposhta subscription catalogue, the Belposhta management's stereotyped answer was: 'Since the law does not oblige the organization to include a periodical in its catalogue, it is the right of Belposhta to choose publications for the catalogue,'" Mardas said. JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2006/11/3-cee/cee-201106.asp