At 12.40 on Friday on the Belarusian side of the border with Russia an edition of the newspaper "Tovarisch" was detained.
As the deputy editor of "Tovarisch" Dmitry Yanenka reported to the news portal www.UDF.BY, a traffic policeman had checked the documents which were in perfect order. Then he consulted with someone on the phone and asked the driver of the car with the newspapers to follow him to Dubrouna police department of Vitebsk region. No claims against the newspaper were yet charged.
"Unfortunately, we are probably going back to the bygone days, when almost every week the car carrying our newspaper was directed to a police department", said Dmitry Yanenka. "I do not think that the police will have any questions on the content of the newspaper, because it is not their competence. Most likely, some time later the newspaper will be released. The police officer seems to have decided to be vigilant, and the future of the edition will be decided by people of higher rank."
The detention of the newspaper "Tovarisch" lasted for half an hour. The police officer did not escort the edition to Dubrouna police department. He wrote down the data of the documents (both of Dmitry Yanenko and those accompanying the newspaper's edition), wished Dmitry a good journey and let him go.
The deputy editor of the newspaper considers the actions of the police officer “absolutely logical”, because "the newspaper is officially registered in Belarus, and in support of this copies of the registration documents were shown".
"I think that this happening will be reported to the department. Then, most likely, the information will be sent to Minsk. But then nothing will happen, because all documents are in order, and the newspaper is published legally", said Dmitry Yanenko. He joked that the traffic police officer was probably "scared" by the headline on the front page of the newspaper – "the independent press is the target of the state".
