Belarus Newspaper Defies Suspension

Officials at the leading opposition newspaper in Belarus vowed Saturday to ignore an order suspending its activity, the most serious punitive action undertaken by the country’s hard-line leaders against the press.

The head of the nation’s Press Committee, Vladimir Belsky, said on national television Friday night that registration had been withdrawn for the biweekly business newspaper, which he said had been warned five times about violations of legal norms.

But the independent newspaper’s editors and publisher said they had received no official notice of the suspension and saw the move as a serious escalation of President Alexander Lukashenko’s crackdown on liberal opponents, trade unions and the media.

“No one can deny us our registration other than a court,” Publisher Pyotr Martsev said. “This is the first step toward presidential rule and maybe even dictatorship. We will print by any legal means. We cannot tolerate such lawlessness.”

Since his election in July 1994, Lukashenko has sacked five editors of newspapers linked to the government or parliament.

Pavel Sheremet, the opposition newspaper’s editor in chief, said the suspension order was probably linked to a recent article denouncing the president’s personal security service.