Feb 10, 2006, 17:56 GMT
Minsk - Belorussian Ministry of Communications officials on Friday announced new laws effectively banning home access to the Internet.
A policy statement from the national telephone monopolist Beltelekom defining legal internet access limited potential users of the Internet to companies and government organizations and specifically omitted private individuals.
Belorussian internet domain operators not associated with a company or government agency would be cut off and in case of repeated violations could face heavy fines or even jail, the statement said.
The Belorussian internet is in terms of size in its infancy, with some 1,300 domains, almost all non-commercial, and 14,000 users.
The Beltelekom policy if put into effect would nevertheless drastically reduce Belarusian's access to international media, as Belarus' state media is heavily biased towards the country's authoritarian President Aleksander Lukashenko.
Internet aside, the only other source of uncensored information in Belarus is foreign radio broadcasts, which are at times jammed by the Lukashenko regime.
Lukashenko is widely expected to win a third term in office in national elections this March.
His administration and the country's KGB has cracked down on potential opposition groups in the run-up to the vote, targeting among others Polish ethnic groups and western NGOs.
Your Talkback on this Story