Does publication of newspaper in Belarus violate the equality of state languages?
In
February members of Slonim branch of the organizing committee of the
Belarusian Christian Democracy gathered 39 signatures under an
address to the chief editor of the “Slonimski Vestnik” newspaper,
calling to return the Belarusian language to its pages, which had
been completely replaced by Russian.
Before this, the newspaper had
been published only in Belarusian since 1939. At present only the
newspaper’s name is written in Belarusian – with the appointment
of Lyashchanka the newspaper started being printed almost solely in
Russian, only journalist Vasil Afanasik writes in Belarusian.
In
his answer Kiryl Lyashchanka refers to the results of the referendum
of 15 May 1995, after which the Russian language acquired the status
of a state language on par with Belarusian. Then the editor writes
that the editorial staff allegedly held a poll among the readers and
the majority of readers voted for its issue in Russian. In fact,
there was no such pall in the pages of “Slonimski Vesnik” during
Lyashchanka’s editorship.
He also writes that the newspaper
wasn’t renamed in Russian after the recent re-registration with the
state.
The members of Slonim BCD were dissatisfied with such
an answer. Slonim resident Barys Kuchynski filed a written address to
Kiryl Lyashchanka, asking to publish the previous address with the 39
signatures and the answer to it in the newspaper.
Mr.
Lyashchanka answered that he didn’t want to issue the newspaper in
the Belarusian language as far as “the activities of “Slonimski
Vesnik” aren’t aimed at violating the equality of the media”…
What concerns the request to publish the collective address and the
answer to it, the editor answered that the editorial office had the
right to choose the letters which are published in the newspaper and
nobody has the right to force the editorial office to publish the
information it has rejected.