The Supreme Economic Court dismissed the suit filed by the editorial office Narodnaia Volia against the Ministry of Information, upholding the warning issued to the newspaper.

28.06.2005.

The editorial office has the right to appeal this decision in the presidium of the Supreme Economic Court, which the Narodnaia Volia intends to use it, Joseph Siaredzich, the publication's senior editor, told the Belarusian Association of Journalists.

The warning issued by the Ministry of Information to the newspaper on 13 April concerned two articles. The first article was published on 3 March and was entitled "Virtual war of a granddaughter and a grandmother". The Ministry of Information believed that the author (A.Sivy) published the materials of the case being investigated without written agreement of the judge. (Judge Katsiaryna Karatkievich ignored a similar case quoted by the claimants: the television company ONT reported the decision made in the case of S.Haidukievich against the Narodnaia Volia right after it was voiced but before it came into legal force, however, the Ministry of Information did not see this as a violation).

On 31 March the newspaper printed "An appeal to the Afghan War veterans", which was signed by the human rights activist Aleh Volchak alongside other people. He was mentioned in the letter as the leader of the movement Defenders of Homeland, and the Ministry of Information regarded this as information distributed on behalf of an unregistered association.

The Ministry believed that with these articles the publication violated Article 5 of the Law "On the Press and Other Media". According to the Law "On the Press and Other Media", the repeated violation of Article of this law may cause the media to be suspended in court. So far the editorial office of the newspaper has only received one warning 5. (Another warning issued by the Ministry of Information (as of 11 May) was based on Article 32; besides that, on 16 May Mikalai Kuprianau, the deputy procurator general of Belarus, issued a warning by terms of Article 5 to the senior editor of the Narodnaia Volia Iosif Siaredzich).

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