“Vecherniy Stolin” Issue Suspended

On 11 February the founder and chief editor of the non-state newspaper “Vecherniy Stolin” Aliaksandr Ihnatsiuk received by mail the order to suspend the newspaper issue for three months. Both documents were signed by the Minister of information Uladzimir Rusakevich. According to the minister, the edition grossly violated the acting legislation: articles 30 and 31 of the Law on press and several rulings of the Soviet of Ministers.

The newspaper is charged with spending of more than 30% of its volume on advertising “in spite of it not being registered as a specialized mass media for announcements and promotion materials”.

The second pretension to the newspaper is connected with the change of its topics and language without submitting a written notice to the registering organ. (In the warning it is said that the edition “has transformed to a mass political media from leisure reading” and started to use only Russian instead of Russian and Belarusian, without timely informing the Ministry of Information).

As a result, on 5 February the minister Rusakevich issued a warning to the newspaper and on 6 February ordered to suspend it for three months.

We should remind that the issue of “Vecherniy Stolin” was suspended on 26 February 2003 on the order of the Minister of Information M. Padhayny after the newspaper received two warnings for violation of article 5 of the Law on press. However, on 28 April the newspaper issue was renewed, as the minister satisfied the petition of A. Ihnatsiuk to exempt the newspaper from this sanction due to its hard financial state.

Besides, on 26 December 2003 the Stolin District Court fined Aliaksandr Ihnatsiuk guilty in violation of article 369 of the Criminal Code of Belarus, “insult of duty official” and obliged him to pay 30 basic units to the former head of Stolin District Executive Committee Uladzimir Pashkevich.

Press-service of the PA “Belarusian Association of Journalists”