On May 22, the judge of the October Court of Viciebsk, Alesia Zharikova, found the journalist of Belsat TV channel guilty of producing and disseminating information without accreditation.
Having come to court, Sergey Rusetsky decided to play a game, the outcome of which is known in advance. As he had foreseen, Judge Alesia Zharikova did not satisfy either the petition that the process was conducted in Belarusian, or a request that, in order to save the procedural time, a copy of a pre-prepared decision on the case was immediately given to him. As a result, all the necessary procedural formalities were fulfilled in full.
According to a protocol compiled by the employee of the Oktyabrsky district police department Sergey Verakso, Sergei Rusetsky was accused of the fact that on March 25, between 12:30 and 13:30, not being accredited to journalists of an unregistered foreign news agency, he produced and distributed Network product of the media, which concerned an unauthorized mass event in the city of Viciebsk. Thus, according to the policeman, the actions of the journalist include the composition of the administrative offense provided for in Part 2 of Article 22.9 (production of media products for the foreign mass media (Belsat TV) without accreditation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
In court, Sergei Rusetsky did not admit his guilt and explained why he disagreed with the conclusions of Captain Veraxo. The journalist did not deny his connection with the Belsat TV channel, but, in his words, the militiaman was in no way able to prove the fact of production and distribution of media products.
Sergei Rusetsky, firstly, referred to the fact that according to the law on the mass media to distribute the products of the media, the editors and legal entities on whom the functions of the editorial board of the media are entrusted have the right. Therefore, it is not clear how an offense can be applied to an individual.
The second aspect, to which the journalist drew attention, the material he collected, did not get on the air of the Belsat TV channel on March 25. Thus, according to Sergei Rusetskiy, there is no administrative offense in his actions at all.
He also noted that the provisions of the law on the mass media contradict the Constitution and international legal acts. Thus, they are discriminatory, and many norms are invented solely to prosecute dissent and suppress freedom of speech.
"The main argument in May, in fact, is that the police, who started the administrative process against me, did not find proper evidence that the two signs (production and distribution) took place on March 25. During my cooperation with the television channel "Belsat" hundreds of materials were created, but none of them became an excuse for bringing me to justice. And at a time when there were no materials on March 25 at Belsat, I am being held liable for the intention to make a story. But there is no plot! For what to judge? It is incomprehensible!", the journalist noted.
According to him, the material he collected, but the fact of the dissemination of information was not, because on that day the most important were the events that took place in Minsk.
After the above arguments, Sergei noted that his reputation from the court decision will not suffer, and he will agree with any decision, but the reputation of the court and the judge may suffer. However, despite the incorrectness of the wording of the protocol and the terminological confusion and the assurances of Sergei Rusetsky in his law-abiding and high legal culture, the decision was rendered.
Taking into account the materials of the case, Judge Alesia Zharikova decided to recognize the fact of the administrative offense as proved and fined the journalist of "Belsat" for 20 basic units (460 rubles).
S. Horki
