Police collect information about Belsat's journalists

• 3.05.2013, 15:04

Police conducted a second questioning during the last day regarding Belsat's journalists in the Bialynichy district.

A district police officer, Aliaksandr Yemialyanau, visited Valery Vusik in the village of Lebiadzianka in the Bialynichy district. According to Valery Vusik, the police officer asked how he had met independent journalists and how a story about Lebiadzianka agricultural company had appeared on Beltsat TV channel, Viasna human rights centre reports.

“District police officer Aliaksandr Yemialyanau visited me at home,” Valry Vusik says. “I thought he would question me about the administrative case on defamation against Mikhail Bialou, a nephew of Lebiadzianka's former director. But Yemialyanau asked absolutely different questions. He asked when and how I had got acquainted with Barys Vyrvich, the publisher of Mogilevski Vybor newspaper; why independent journalists had made a reportage about Lebiadzianka farm and how the footage had appeared on Belsat. He said that I would be a witness in the case.

I answered that I had known journalist Barys Vyrvich for a long time. I first met him when we both worked in the agricultural sector. As for the independent journalists, they came to Lebiadzianka farm after I had published my article 'What has changed on Lebiadzianka farm in the last 10 years' in the local newspaper Mogilevski Vybor. They found the article interesting and decided to visit the animal farm. By the way, Lebiadzianka company has been constructing a new farm for several years. No one knows when the construction will be finished. I said I didn't know how the story about Lebiadzianka farm appeared on Belsat, but noted I agreed with the content. The police officer didn't explain why he was so interested in the independent journalists. He wrote down my words and went away.”