The Committee for State Security (KGB) in Belarus has returned the seized equipment to journalists working for Radio Racyja, journalist Syarhey Budkin told BelaPAN. The equipment included, among other things, four computers, a studio switchboard, two voice recorders, and a cassette recorder.“A KGB officer just phoned our colleague yesterday and said that the equipment might be collected,” Mr Budkin said. “He went there in the afternoon and picked everything up. They didn’t explain or say anything to him or offer any apologies.”
The equipment was seized after the KGB started massive raids on more than 20 addresses in Minsk, Brest, Vitsyebsk, Homyel, Hrodna, Navapolatsk and other cities in Belarus on 27 and 28 March. The raids targeted the homes and offices of journalists deemed to be working for Polish-based TV Belarus (BelSat), Radio Racyja, and European Radio for Belarus, as well as other foreign and non-state Belarusian media outlets.
The searches were conducted in connection with criminal proceedings instituted in 2005 over the online dissemination of animated cartoons allegedly defamatory to Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
The KGB’s move was condemned by the United States, the European Union, as well as by the Belarusian Association of Journalists, the International Federation of Journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Reporters Without Borders.
(Source: Naviny.by/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)