Belarus government warns journalist on reports for Polish radio

Nov 27, 2009, 13:04 GMT

   Minsk - Belorussian police officers warned a reporter working for Polish radio she could face imprisonment if she made further reports from the former Soviet republic.

   Tamara Shepetkina, a journalist employed by Radio Racyja in the eastern Belorussian city Bereza, described the warning in a Friday interview with the German News Agency dpa.

   Recent Radio Racyja reports using audio comments by a local health official and a regional military commander, violated Belorussian law and, if repeated, could be punished with jail time, Shepetkina described a Bereza prosecutor as saying.

   Fedor Mikhovich, Bereza's deputy prosecutor, also handed over a written warning on Shepetkina's working for Radio Racyja, a media agency not accredited with Belarus' government, she said.

   The warnings came one month after Radio Racyja journalist Zmitser Kisel was called in to a police station and warned he faced legal penalties if he continued at his job.

   Aleksandr Lukashenko, Belarus' authoritarian president, maintains tight control over the country's media. He has accused electronic media outside the country that report negatively on Belarus of being biased against his regime.

   Polish media in recent years have increased transmissions aimed at Belarus, home to a Polish minority of some 400,000.

   Lukashenko has described Belarus' ethnic Poles as a potential source of unrest.