On 10 February, the Baranavichy Council of the Belarusian Language Society filed with Viktar Dzichkouski, Chairman of the Baranavichy city executive committee, a repeated letter informing that all documents necessary for changing the legal address of the local BLS organization had been presented to the CEC more than a month ago, but no answer was received in the legal terms.
In the beginning of April the head of the Belarusian Language Society Aleh Trusau addressed the head of the presidential administration Uladzimir Makei with the request to establish a Belarusian-language TV channel. According to Mr. Trusau, absence of such a channel deprives the citizens of holistic informational space in their native language. Калі да восені не вырашыцца пытанне пра стварэнне беларускамоўнага дзяржаўнага тэлеканала, Таварыства беларускай мовы імя Францішка Скарыны ў верасні пачне збор подпісаў грамадзян пад адпаведным зваротам да ўлады.
During his meeting with the leader of the Belarusian Language Society Aleh Trusau, head of the state-owned TV channel BT Aliaksandr Zimouski said Belarusian would be more widely used on air, including a number of daily and weekly programs in Belarusian and a monthly talk-show on the problems of the language status in Belarus.
According to the data, provided by the Ministry of Statistics, only 1.9% of Belarusian first formers go to Belarusian-language schools, which is 30 times less than in 1993. In total, there are 18.4% of Belarusian-speaking schoolchildren, the urban schools having as little as 1.9% Belarusian-language pupils.
Belarusian Language Society has decided to take part in the school reform. As said by the chairperson of the organization Aleh Trusau in the interview to the European Radio, the BLS secretariat has adopted a statement calling for extension of the usage of the Belarusian language in schools.
At the end of September the Belarusian Language Society received an answer from the Ministry of Culture, department of protection of historical and cultural heritage. BLS had applied to the prosecutor’s office of Belarus concerning law violations during the ?reconstruction’ of the historical center of Hrodna.
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