14:13 Reader subscribes local library to non-state newspaper in Vicebsk

The private newspaper Vicebski Kurjer has disappeared from the reading rooms of public libraries. Many readers have complained about the situation, but the local authorities advised the public libraries not to subscribe to a newspaper with the circulation of 1500 copies.

Pavel Levinau, the resident of Vicebsk and a local activist with the Belarusian Helsinki Committee human rights group, decided to restore the balance by paying for the subscription for the local major public library with his own money.

The library will be recieving Vicebsk Kurjer from March till the end of the year. Pavel Levinau said he was going to monitor that the copies of the newspaper be always available in the library's reading rooms.

The non-state newspaper Vicebsk Kurjer was denied distribution by the state-owned news-stand network in 2005. In 2006, it was also crossed out from the national subscription lists of another delivery monopoly, Belposta, reports our corrsepondent in Vicebsk, Jadviha Staseuskaja.