English

Founder of news website in Homyel region fined over copyright violation

 

A judge of the Rahachow District Court in the Homyel region has imposed a fine of three million rubels ($350) on the founder of an independent news website over a copyright violation.

Dzyanis Dashkevich, who edits www.vrogacheve.ru, was sued by the government-controlled newspaper Svobodnoye Slovo, which accused him of republishing information without its permission.

As Mr. Dashkevich told BelaPAN, the information in question was an official police report about the number of frostbitten residents of the Rahachow district this past winter. “They failed to conclude in court whether the information was first published by the district newspaper or our website,” he stressed. “Cannot an ordinary person read a police report and distribute it?”

In February, the website, which covers local news, was attacked by hackers who deleted all articles, he said.

Mr. Dashkevich announced his plans to appeal the court ruling.

The journalist said that he was the regular target of highly critical articles published by the Svobodnoye Slovo. “They see that people support us and that scares them, that’s why such articles appear regularly,” he said.

The journalist said that he would appeal to the local prosecutor’s office over the newspaper’s articles about him. // BelaPAN