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Alert

Internet forum shut down

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has condemned the Belarusian government's latest attack on free expression after the state-owned firm Beltelekom, which owns the Belpak Internet service provider, shut down the popular Grodnensky Forum (http://www.forum.grodno.by) because it was seen as too subversive. Belpak holds a monopoly on Internet access in Belarus.

"The Belarusian government is determined to silence any dissident voices by the crude application of censorship," RSF said. "At a time when there are fewer and fewer independent newspapers, and television stations are completely under state control, it is worrying to see that the crackdown is also extending to the Internet, thus removing any hope of pluralism of information in the country," the organisation added.

The forum, which opened in 2000, was set up as a complement to an entertainment portal for residents of Grodno, near the Polish border. Since 2002, it has progressively gained in popularity, hosting a number of discussions critical of President Alexander Lukashenko's policies. The discussions gradually became more disparaging in the run-up to the 20 March 2005 parliamentary elections. When it was shut down, the site was receiving approximately 2,000 hits per day.

On 10 March, the forum's administrator, Alexei Rad, who had worked for Beltelekom for the past seven years, was summoned by his immediate supervisor, who complained to him about the political nature of the forum. On 12 March, Rad was forced to resign.

"It was not my job to moderate political content, only to delete obscene, racist or fascist messages," Rad told RSF. "Evidently topics of discussion, such as 'Our President, who is he?' 'Europe and Belarus', 'What propaganda really is' and 'The Iron Curtain', were disturbing to the authorities."

On 16 March, Rad opened a new, similar forum (http://www.forum.grodno.net), which is hosted abroad. The site is already receiving more than 1,000 hits per day.