The chief of the local Emergency Department Vital Rusilevich refused a comment to Hazeta Slonimskaya about the activities of his subordinate body, the press office of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) reported.
The official warned that later on the non-governmental paper would never receive a single comment from any representative of the Department. As a reason, he referred to some “authorities’ verbal direction”.
“If we need to publish something in Hazeta Slonimskaya, we will send you the information”, – stated Mr Rusilevich.
The recurrent fact of pro-governmental discrimination came just weeks after the beginning of the “dialogue”. At the beginning of February, during the first in years “round table” discussion between the authorities and independent media in Minsk, the high-ranked 
official of the President Administration of Belarus Natallia Piatkevich, right, admitted abuses by local authorities against journalists. She spoke negatively about officials in province viewing the state media as a “municipal property”.
The same day, Ms Piatkevich told that the President of Belarus Aliaksandr Lukashenka issued a special decree obliging the officials to provide journalists with information. The right to get information on the work of state institutions is secured by the Belarusian Media Law.
The predominant segment of the media sphere in Belarus is state-owned. Independent papers have low circulation; they point to the deliberate economic and political discrimination by the state. 13 independent papers, including Hazeta Slonimskaya, remain eliminated from the official subscription and distribution system.
