NTV news story about Baumgertner's arrest cut by censorship (Video)

• 28.08.2013, 12:04

Belarusian censors cut a story about the arrest of Uralkali CEO from the evening news programme “Segonya. Itogi” aired in Belarus.

Charter97.org has learnt it from a reader.

“I decided to watch NTV-Belarus, in particular the evening news programme 'Segodnya. Itogi' for Belarusian viewers. As usual, Belarusian censors cut a story about the arrest of Uralkali CEO. Firstly, the news began without headlines. It's clear – it was more difficult to cut the words about the arrest from there. Moreover, anchor Tatyana Mitkova began the news programme with the phrase 'We don't need enemies if we have such allies,'” the reader writes.

He adds that the first story about a possible American military operation in Syria was followed by an unusually long commercial break.

“As you understand, the story about the arrest of Vladislav Baumgertner was cut. In the original programme, it was followed by the story about the FEMEN group,” the reader said.

The Belarusian Investigation Committee said about the arrest of Vladislav Baumgertner on August 26. A criminal case under part 3 of article 424 of the Criminal Code (abuse of power) was initiated against Uralkali CEO and chairman of the supervisory board of the Belarusian Potash Company.

Four other Uralkali top managers were put on Interpol's wanted list.