Zgoda Newspaper Ceases to Exist

Source: www.baj.ru
On 17 March the judge of Supreme Economic Court Aksana Mikhniuk satisfied the Ministry’s of Information demand to close down the newspaper Zgoda. The initiated closure had been reasoned by two notifications of breaking article 5 of the Belarusian law On press by the newspaper. However, the term for appealing against the second notification hasn’t expired so far. A BAJ lawyer A.Bastunets represented Zgoda editorial’s interests at court. According to him, the judicial authorities violated a legal norm, allowing an editorial to appeal against official claims to the court.
It should be reminded that the Ministry of Information submitted a claim to the Supreme Economic Court on 6 March 2006. The state authorities demanded to close down the Zgoda weekly. In the Ministry’s of Information opinion, the closure of Zgoda was reasoned by repeated violations of article 5 of the Press Law by the newspaper editorial.” The first notification of 9 November 2005 was grounded on the publication of satirical collages, depicting the supreme state officials. The second notification of 23 February 2006 was reasoned by the re-print of pictures, which had caused ‘the caricature scandal’ in Europe.