Hazeta Slonimskaya

The oldest independent newspaper in Slonim was founded in 1938 by the well-known poet and his wife Ludmila. In 1997 ‘Slonimskaya’ was revived under chief editor Victor Volodashuck. In 2008 Hazeta Slonimskaya received the Free Media Award from Die Zeit Foundation and an honorary certificate from Belarusian Association of Journalists. In 2017 the newspaper returned to the state catalogue and could be sold via press stands again. == Crackdown and Suspension ==

On November 9, 2020, the house of the founder of the newspaper Anna Volodarshchuk and the editorial office of Hazeta Slonimskaya were searched, computers and other storage media were taken away, and work was paralyzed. On November 18, 2020, Anna Volodarshchuk reported that it became impossible to publish the newspaper in conditions of violence, so Hazeta Slonimskaya suspended its publication for six months. In the assessment of the chairman of the Belarusian Association of Journalists Andrey Bastunets, the crackdown on Hazeta Slonimskaya confirms the pressure of the authorities on the regional press. At the beginning of May 2021, a notification was sent to the Ministry of Information about the resumption of the newspaper's publication. On 24 May the ministry included it in the register of printed media. However, the newspaper could not be printed, as several printing houses refused to print the circulation.{{cite web ==References==