Warning to “Predprinimatelskaya Gazeta”
On 19 June S. Nichyparovich, vice-Minister of Information, signed warning to “Predprinimatelskaya Gazeta”, issued by the Unitarian enterprise “Marat” and the order to suspend the edition for three months. The editorial staff received both documents by mail on 23 June.
The warning was given for the newspaper article “Lawful Lawlessness” (No. 17 for 9-16 June), devoted to firing of Uladzimir Tselesh, director of the republican printing house “Chyrvonaya Zorka”. The article stated that the reasons for dismissal of U. Tselesh remain secret and that this deed had no juridical grounding. The Ministry, in its turn, stated that the working contract with U. Tselesh was broken in accordance with Article No. 259 of the Working Code. So, the Ministry of Information has taken the view that the publication violated Article No. 40 of the Law on Press, according to which journalists had to check whether the information they received was true.
On 19 June S. Nichyparovich signed order No. 109, to suspend the newspaper edition for three months for “violation of the law by the editorial staff by publication of false information”.
Liubow Vashkevich, vice-Head of “Marat”, said to BAJ journalists that the editorial staff would complain against the warning and the vice-Minister’s order. At the same time, after suspension of “Predprinimatelskaya Gazeta”, “BDG” journalists have no possibility to present their articles to readers.
We should remind that on 11 June the Ministry of Information warned three founders of “Predprinimatelskaya Gazeta”, Hleb Bahamolaw, Aleh Drazdow and Ihar Kavalevich for violation of Article No. 11 of the Law on press. The Ministry accuses the newspaper founders of changing the topics for publication and the newspaper’s juridical address (at present the Unitarian enterprise “Marat” acts as the newspaper’s editorial staff, the newspaper publishes articles of “Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta” journalists”. The newspaper founders have already complained against the warning, as the law allows them to inform the Ministry about such changes within month’s term, but haven’t received any answer yet.
