BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

02/12/2005

Belarus: Distribution of independent weekly Solidarnost cut off

/noticias.info/ The independent weekly paper Solidarnost lost its distribution network on 29 November when Minoblsajuzdruck, the Minsk subsidiary of the national press handling firm Belsayuzdruk, cancelled in writing a contract it had signed two months earlier with the paper for all of next year. No reason was given. Three weeks ago the state post office cancelled a contract for mailing copies to subscribers.

The paper has been forced to print outside the country, in Smolensk (Russia), since the state printing firm Krasnaya Zvezda refused to renew its contract. Solidarnost and the country's only opposition daily, Narodnaya Volya, no longer have a legal way to distribute in Belarus.

"It's now impossible to print and circulate independent papers," Solidarnost editor Aleksandr Starikevich told Reporters Without Borders. "What kind of media can survive in this country ?"

Only the weeklies Belorusy i Rynok and Belgazeta have so far escaped the repeated attacks on the independent press and continue to be sold on the streets and sent through the post.

Source:

http://www.noticias.info/asp/aspComunicados.asp?nid=124372&src=0

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