Officers of the Baranavichy City Executive Committee get confused in the case of the Milavidy festival
On 9 August the second hearing on the
lawsuit of the activist of the “For Freedom” movement Viktar
Syrytsa against the actions of the newspaper of the Baranavichy
District Executive Committee “Nash Krai” took place at the
Baranavichy City and District Court. The proceedings were held by
Judge Volha Apanovich in the Belarusian language.
Viktar
Syrytsa filed a lawsuit against “Nash Krai”. The matter is that
on 30 May 2013 the newspaper published information that a cultural
event in honor of the rebels of 1863 near the Milavidy monuments at
12.30 a.m. on 2 June. After reading about it, Viktar Syrytsa ordered
a bus and organized a bus trip for amateurs of history to this
festival. However, no events were held near the Milavidy monument at
the specified time, that's why Mr. Syrytsa had to apply to court.
At
the second sitting the activist argued that “Nash Krai"
violated the law "On introduction of changes and amendments to
certain laws on advertising" of 3 January 2013. For example, the
newspaper provided no information about the organizer of the cultural
event, the specifics of the planned event, no name and location of
the legal entity, etc. Viktar Syrytsa stressed that the people who
came to the Milavidy monuments had suffered not only financial loss,
but also felt cheated and offended. That's why he asked the court to
oblige the newspaper to publish a refutation, that on 30 May 2013 it
had published false information about the event in honor of the
rebels in 1863, misleading its readers. Moreover, he asked the court
to exact from “Nash Krai” the loss he incurred by renting the
bus, in the amount of 2.3 million rubles, and also collect from the
newspaper the registration fee he had to pay while filing his
lawsuit.
The defendant, the chief editor of "Nash Krai",
Mikhail Shubich admitted in court that he had violated the Law "On
Advertisement" and promised not to admit such violations in the
future. He also told the court that the newspaper had published the
information it had received from the Department of Culture of the
Baranavichy City Executive Committee. The representatives of the
Baranavichy DEC Dzmitry Varvashenia and Tatsiana Evmiankova also
admitted in court that they hadn't enough time to publish in the
official newspaper the information that the planned event had been to
10 p.m. due to the possibility of rain. Dzmitry Varvashenia even
asked the court to attach to the case materials a photo of the event
which had been held at that time. By the way, only two people could
be seen in the photo. The representatives of the DEC stated they had
informed the local dwellers about the postponement of the action
through the local school and the village club. However, they didn't
explain how it had been done.
“At the end of the
trial I read an excerpt from the judgment of the Baranavichy City
Court of 31 July about bringing me to the administrative liability of
a fine of 2 million rubles. In the reasoning of this decision is
stated that on 30 May the Department of Culture filed to the
Baranavichy District Police Department an official letter to cancel
the scheduled event near the Milavidy monuments on 2 June. I think it
became clear to the court that the officers of the executive
committee not only got confused in their own explanations, but were
also trying to mislead the court. It means that on 30 May the
executive committee at first announced that it would hold the
festival near Milavidy, then canceled the event, but nevertheless
some of its officials held it on 2 June. It looks like a comedy,”
concluded Viktar Syrytsa.
Therefore, the social activist filed
a petition to the court to send an inquiry to the district police
department in order to find out whether it had received the letter of
the Department of Culture of the Baranavichy DEC of 30 May concerning
the cancellation of the cultural event scheduled for 2 June.
Judge
Volha Apanasik granted the petition and postponed the court hearings
to 26 August.
In the photo: Viktar Syrytsa and the chief
editor of “Nash Krai” Mikhail Shubin at court.
