'Nasha Niva' got fined 14 million rubles
On 29 July Aliaksandr Karamyshau, Judge of the Minsk
City Economic Court, considered the administrative case that had been brought
against the private socio-political edition Nasha Niva by the Main
Police Department of the Minsk City Executive Committee, and sentenced the
newspaper to pay a fine of 14 million rubles.
The real initiator of the case is the Ministry of Information – the case was
brought after the Main Police Department received its letter About bringing
to administrative responsibility, in which it was stated that
administrative cases were to be brought against Narodnaya Volia and Nasha
Niva, each of whom had received two warnings from the Ministry of Justice
during the year.
As written in Nasha Niva, it is the first precedent when the Ministry of
Information brings cases against periodicals with the assistance of the police.
Meanwhile, the newspaper hasn't appealed the warning of 6 July (which became
the formal reason for bringing the case). Nevertheless, the judge refused to
suspend the case for this reason.
The arguments of representative of Nasha Niva that the absence of the
zip code in one of the newspaper issues and that the demanded fine was gigantic
and endangered the work of the editorial board, were ignored by the court.
It's worth noting that the aforementioned warnings could result in the
liquidation of the newspaper. The Ministry of Justice even filed the
appropriate lawsuit, but suddenly revoked it on 12 July.
The editorial board has ten days to appeal the verdict.
