Police and other law enforcement agencies regularly detain public activists for distributing non-governmental newspapers in the streets of Belarusian cities. On 9 December in Brest police arrested three members of Young Front, a pro-opposition civic youth organization. The youth were giving away to passers-by old issues of Narodnaya Volia (People’s Will), an officially registered pro-opposition newspaper. On 11 December in Astravets district of the Hrodna region, local activist Ivan Kruk was detained. He brought an issue of the registered newspaper, Novy Chas (New Age), to local authorities for their consideration, so that they could get familiar with it. Next day in Minsk, police twice arrested activists of Young Front. Young people were distributing their organization’s leaflets to passers-by.
On 12 December, a district court of Hrodna region for the second time considered whether the August issue of an independent newspaper Svaboda (Liberty) carried extremist materials. The appeal by Ihar Siarheyenka, the head of the KGB regional office in Hrodna, was not substantiated and, as in previous court hearings, no extremist materials were found in the issue.
On the same day, 12 December, the first anniversary of the independent satellite TV channel, Belsat, was to be held at the Aquarium Club in Minsk. However, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists, on the eve of the celebration the club was abruptly closed for maintenance and surrounded by police. The organizers had to urgently find a new place for the venue in a nearby cafeteria. During the festivities, a heavy police presence was noticed in the neighbourhood.
