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Court rejects Narodnaya Volya's appeal against information ministry's warning

A judge of the Supreme Economic Court of Belarus on Monday upheld the information ministry's formal warning to the Narodnaya Volya newspaper, said BelaPAN.

Judge Katsyaryna Karatkevich started hearing the pro-opposition newspaper's appeal against the warning on March 23.

The warning was issued to the private newspaper by the ministry this past January for a story about an unregistered opposition youth organization called Malady Front.

The ministry accused Narodnaya Volya of “distributing information on behalf of an organization that has failed to obtain state registration in accordance with the established procedure.”

Speaking in court last week, Editor-in-Chief Iosif Syaredzich described the warning as baseless and as an "example of censorship with regard to the independent media, as well as of an unprofessional discharge of official duties by representatives of the information ministry."

In the story, which was published in September last year, the newspaper said that Malady Front had launched a campaign calling on Alyaksandr Lukashenka to “go away” as president.