In the end of May, the press service of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus issued a stern message with an even more severe headline: "On the non-distribution of untrue information by political parties and other public associations".
The message contained information about the Belarusian Party of the Left "Fair World", which had allegedly distributed the false information:
"In some print media and the Internet there was information with reference to representatives of the Belarusian Party of the Left "Fair World" that N. Saldatava who was elected deputy of Glibausky village council (Rechitsa district) was a member of the party. However, as N. Saldatava said, she had nothing to do with the political party and had never been its member".
The Ministry of Justice says ironically that "distribution of such untrue information raises, of course, the credibility of the respective political associations, but indicates their wish to pass the desirable for reality".
In conclusion the ministry reminded that it is necessary to observe the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus which guarantees that citizens of the Republic of Belarus has the right to receive, store and spread reliable information.
To clarify the situation, a correspondent of the news portal www.UDF.BY contacted the chairman of Rechytsa district organisation of the Party "Fair World" Uladzimir Sheyin. Here's what he said:
"I know what is behind it. An official of the executive committee came to Natalia Saldatava to put pressure on her for being a member of the opposition party... I declare: Natalia Saldatava was a member of the Belarusian Party of Communists and was re-registered in the Belarusian Party of the Left "Fair World".
The leader of the "Fair World" Syargey Kalyakin commented on the careful attention of the Ministry of Justice to the party:
"Once again we have to acknowledge that public authorities which are intended to defend the rule of law themselves flagrantly violate laws. In this case we have an absolute fact that the official website of the Ministry of Justice distributed false, defamatory information against our party with the purpose to harm our business and political reputation. However, we will not sue them, because in practice we got added evidence that Belarus has no independent judiciary. At the same time I believe that if the leadership of the Ministry of Justice has some concern about their reputation, then they must apologise to the party and the officers guilty of spreading this false information must be punished".
