MINSK, April 15 (RIA Novosti) – An employee of a Belarusian music TV channel has been detained for allegedly airing pornographic footage on the channel during the daytime after quarreling with his girlfriend, Belarusian investigators said on Monday.
On Saturday afternoon, the BelMuzTV channel aired several music videos by the Belarusian rock band Lyapis Trubetskoi, which is unofficially banned on local television, followed by ten minutes of pornographic footage. The TV employee responsible then fled the building, according to investigators.
“The suspect, an employee of the channel born in 1985, was detained in [the city of] Mogilev, and has been brought to Minsk… He is already being interrogated,” a source in Belarus’ law enforcement agencies told RIA Novosti on Monday.
A spokesperson for the Belarusian investigative committee said that the suspect explained his actions as being down to him being depressed after arguing with his girlfriend, suggesting that his actions were not politically motivated.
A criminal case has been opened into the public showing of pornography. The man faces up to four years in prison if charged and convicted.
News reports said back in 2011 that Lyapis Trubetskoi, which has written a number of protest songs, had had to cancel a tour of Belarus after it was reportedly blacklisted by the local authorities, together with other Belarusian and foreign artists.
The Belarusian government and its authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko have been subject to repeated criticism from the West over lack of freedom of speech and human rights violations.
