BAJ urges authorities to unfreeze “Arche” accounts

Belarusian Association of Journalists sent an official letter to the head of the Department for Financial Investigations of the State Control Committee Ryhor Vieramko asking to unfreeze the assets of the “Arche” magazine.

The press-secretary of the organization Barys Haretski told BelaPAN about that.

The appeal was sent on 6 November. In the letter it is highlighted that the BAJ is gravely worried about the situation around the “Arche” magazine. “Starting from the detention of the then magazine’s editor in chief Valer Bulhakau on 14 September in Hrodna, and until now the event keep happening that can rule out the further existence of the magazine”, the BAJ emphasizes.

“Certainly, the Financial Investigations Department has the full right to inspect the activities of businesses, including a magazine’s editorial office. But in our opinion freezing of the magazine’s assets is an extreme measure which there was no need for. In the meanwhile exactly because of that the magazine is deprived of the possibility to fulfill its obligations to the readers and, first of all, to the subscribers”, the BAJ’s appeal reads.