Belarus Journalist Fined for Teddy Bear Photo Session

A court in the Belarusian capital Minsk has ordered Belarus Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist Irina Kozlik to pay a fine in Belarusian rubles equivalent to $360 for holding a teddy bear photo session. Kozlik and photographer Yulia Doroshevich were detained by police outside the Arts Palace in central Minsk on Wednesday while taking photos of teddy bears. They were accused of staging an illegal protest and a protocol of administrative offences was compiled against them. Several Belarusian journalists have participated in different online events and have had their photos taken with teddy bears since July, thus demonstrating their support of journalist Anton Suryapin, who was detained by the Belarusian State Security Committee after publishing photos of teddy bears dropped by Swedish pilots over Minsk on his website at the beginning of July. On July 4 a lightweight civilian airplane operated by Swedish citizens crossed the Belarusian airspace from Lithuania and dropped teddy bears with labels calling for freedom of speech in Belarus over Minsk and Ivenets, a town in the Minsk region. Belarus expelled Sweden's ambassador on 3 August, and withdrew its own envoy to Stockholm.

http://www.kyivpost.com/content/russia-and-former-soviet-union/belarusian-journalist-fined-for-teddy-bear-photo-session-311276.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19176432
http://youtu.be/7iTEs-tK944 (video)