TUT.BY co-founder Yuru Zisser: My first thought was politics
TUT.BY co-founder Yury Zisser has commented on today's search at the portal's newsroom.
"Our journalists' phone are not responding. We do not know exactly what has happened to them. Judging from the press release by the Investigation Committee, Maryna Zolatava and Hanna Kaltygina are being interrogated. Ulyana Babayed is not picking the phone eaither. But as far as I known she is currently not in Belarus," Yury Zisser told Euroradio.
On 7 August, agents are raiding the newsroom offices of TUT.BY and BelaPAN private news agency in connection with the criminal case over the illegal access to the state news agency BELTA's paid subscription newswire. According to BELTA, someone used the passwords provided to other clients of the agency, and the latter experienced problems accessing the subscribed news.
"Reason? Mt first thought was politics, but it is yet premature to think so," says Zisser. "We do not know what is going to happen next. Everything was so sudden. But if they wanted to block the portal, it could have been much easier to do via Beltelecom and then pretend that nobody knows why the site does not open. On the other hand, this is summer break, the time of vacations. Few people read [during the vacations.]"
Yury Zisser also says that agents have sezied the computer equipment from the newsroom. He was allowed inside the office only for one minite. He was told an invetigation is underway targeting the employees who used BELTA's password. Yury Zisser does not know exactly if the newsroom was subscribed to BELTA's newswire, but rather it was not. When he served as TUT.BY CEO, his newsroom was subscribed to the BELTA wire, Zisser said.
"Nobody is allowed into the office. I only managed to notice that the agents were taking away the hard discs from the computers of the detained journalist and editors. I also know for sure that Ulyana Babayed's hard disc was taken," says Yury Zisser.
According to the TUT.BY co-founder, the portal continues operation despite all the difficulties. Journalists upload stories remotely.
