Hrodna Public Services Evict “Batskawshchyna”

21.04.2004.

The public services of Hrodna evict the public association “Batskawshchyna” from its office for having allegedly given one of the rented rooms to the editorial board of the “Den” newspaper. On 15 April “Batskawshchyna” received a letter from the director of Hrodna Leninski Borough Board of Public Services A.Litvin who ordered the organization to leave the building by 15 May. The Board of Public Services will sue “Batskawshchyna” in the case they don’t leave the quarters by the specified term.

“The reason for the cassation of the agreement is the placement of Hrodna office of the “Den” newspaper in untenantable quarters without the permission of the appropriate services” – reads the letter. “Batskawshchyna” is charged with having rented the room it rented itself without the written agreement of the Board of Public Services and the appropriate decision of Hrodna City Executive Committee.

Recently the circulation of the “Den” was detained in Iwye and some persons tried to get break into the office. Mikola Markevich, the head of the board of “Batskawshchyna” and the chief editor of the newspaper, thinks it’s not an occasion. He states that the office room is sub-rented neither judicially, nor factually. The “Den” rents an office in Minsk and pretensions of the public services can be caused by the fact that there are many journalists of the newspaper among the “Batskawshchyna” members.

Press-service of the PA “Belarusian Association of Journalists”