BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

21/12/2006

Reporters watchdog condemns detention of journalist by Belarusian authorities

The Associated Press

MOSCOW: An international reporters watchdog on Thursday condemned Belarusian authorities for detaining a journalist for allegedly resisting arrest and hooliganism.

Alexsei Salei, an editor with the Polish-language Magazyn Polski na Uchodzistwie, was released on Tuesday after serving a seven-day sentence following his arrest in the western Belarusian city of Grodno, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.

The organization quoted Salei as saying his arrest was linked to an article he wrote about a dispute between the Roman Catholic Church and the Belarusian government over the expulsion of several priests and nuns. He also said he was likely arrested in an effort to prevent him from covering a protest about the expulsions. The protest was eventually banned by authorities.

Belarusian officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

The publication, whose title translates as Polish Magazine in Exile, is a monthly produced by a group of ethnic Poles in western Belarus and printed in Warsaw. Its journalists have been arrested and issue seized in the past.

Belarus has long viewed the ethnic Polish minority in western regions of the ex-Soviet republic with great suspicion. Poland, a European Union member, has pushed for democratic change in Belarus, which is tightly controlled by President Alexander Lukashenko's authoritarian government, and the two neighbors have tense relations.

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/21/europe/EU_GEN_Russia_Belarus_Reporter_Detained.php