English

Music channel’s director says that porn hoax was «directed against viewers»

The behavior of the employee of BelMuzTv responsible for broadcasting an explicit sex scene from an adult movie on Saturday afternoon was directed against the viewers themselves, the music channel’s director, Alyaksandr Kapyonkin, told BelaPAN on Monday.

Reports had it that the 28-year-old technician played the video to take revenge on the management of the channel or to show his contempt for the current government.

The broadcast started at about 4 p.m. and lasted about 10 minutes. The suspect left his office, locked the metal door, and broke his key in the lock, which made it impossible for other staff members to stop the video and forced them to take the channel off air and eventually break the door.

BelMuzTv, which airs music videos and entertainment shows round the clock, had not resumed its broadcasts until Sunday.

When asked whether the channel’s management would file a compensation suit over the broken door, Mr. Kapyonkin said that he would be able to give a reply only after the young man was questioned.

The resident of Minsk was arrested in his native city of Mahilyow in the early hours of Monday and immediately driven to Minsk, Alyaksandr Herasimaw, spokesperson for the Minsk city office of the Investigative Committee, told BelaPAN earlier. The man explained that he had played the pornographic video because he was depressed after a quarrel with his girlfriend, Mr. Herasimaw said.

The porn video followed at least two videos by Lyapis Trubetskoi, a popular Belarusian band that has been blacklisted in Belarus over frontman Syarhey Mikhalok’s outspoken criticism of Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

The Minsk city office of the Investigative Committee of Belarus instituted criminal proceedings over the incident under Part Two of the Criminal Code’s Article 343, which penalizes the broadcasting of pornographic content.