Belarusian language is squeezed out of district state-owned press
Members of the organizing committee of
the Belarusian Christian Democracy Party hold an action in support of
the use of the Belarusian language in the pages of the local
state-owned press.
They send letters to the editorial offices
of the state-owned editions, asking to publish at least half of the
articles in Belarusian, as far as it a state language on par with
Russian. However, their concern is hardly shared by the newspapers'
editors.
At present, only one of the 17 district newspapers,
"Peramoha" (issued in Dziatlava), is published
predominantly in the Belarusian language and has a completely
Belarusian website.
A half of the remaining newspapers are
published only in Russian (though two languages – Belarusian and
Russian – are indicated in their registration certificates). The
other half keeps to the official bilingualism.
BCD activists
submitted letters with readers' signatures to the regional and
district press, asking to publish at least a half of articles in
Belarusian. According to Slonim activist Ivan Bedka, ten years ago
the state newspaper in his district was published only in Belarusian.
"We ask to publish at least
half of the newspaper in Belarusian. We have two official state
languages, whereas the newspaper is issued only in Russian, though
earlier it used to published articles and the Belarusian language,
and yet earlier – was issued only in Belarusian," commented
Mr. Bedka.
The editor of "Slonimski Vesnik" Kiryl
Liashchenka explains the domination of the Russian language in the
pages of the newspaper in the following way: "What concerns the
articles, our journalists can write in the preferred language. Most
often the sympathies of our readers bend towards the Russian
language. We have repeatedly studied this issue by holding
questionnaire and street polls – and this is a fact".
A
reader of the Masty district newspaper "Zara nad Niomanam",
Uladzimir Kaushovich, reported about the results of the analysis of
all issues of the newspaper for the previous year he held together
with his friends: "The newspaper used to be published only in
the Belarusian language, and it had a literary page where local poets
and literary workers could publish their works. At present even such
pages have disappeared and everything is published only in
Russian."
The deputy editor of the newspaper, Natallia
Sheuchyk, doesn't consider it to be a problem: "Every journalist
chooses what language to write in. Some of them choose Russian, some
others – Belarusian. So, what's the matter? We have two state
languages, and I don't see any problems here."
Slonim
journalist and writer Siarhei Chyhryn analyzed the situation of the
Belarusian language in the district newspaper and concluded that
during the recent years even the journalists who use to stably and
constantly write in the Belarusian language suddenly started writing
in Russian.