Rehianalnaia Hazieta Thrown out of 2006 Catalogue as Well

15.11.2005.

According to the press-service of Belarusian Association of Journalists

Aliaksandr Mantsevich, director of Rehianalnaia Hazieta Ltd. And the chief editor of the edition received a letter from Aliaksandr Charniak, Belposhta Director General where it is said his newspaper wasn’t included into the subscription catalogue for the 1st half of 2006.

Rehianalnaia Hazieta Ltd. is accused in repeated violation of its undertakings to Belposhta, for instance, didn’t pay for its inclusion into the subscription catalogue for 2005, didn’t pay for the delivery of the extended newspaper numbers and non-timely informed it about the necessity to extend the volume of issues. It is also stated that Belposhta is in a hard economical situation and financial discipline is the most important condition of agreements. Besides, according to the letter, absence of the timely information about the extension of the edition destabilizes the work of the post offices who deal with expedition and transportation of press.

According to A. Mantsevich, Belposhta had formal reasons to break the agreement. However, Belposhta administration knew about all the enumerated “violations of undertakings” and had no pretensions to the newspaper, covering all the expenses from the subscription money received for the newspaper.

-- In fact, such things can be found in the activity of any subject of economy, -- said A. Mantsevich. – I am indignant at such difference in the treatment of state and non-state enterprises. According to the calculations of our accountant, during the 10 months of 2005 our “excess pages” cost to Belposhta 66 210 rubles (about 30US dollars, which the enterprise covered from the subscription means). Could such sum destabilize the work of the whole enterprise? To my mind, it is a political decision.

Rehianalnaia Hazieta is registered as a national edition, that’s why the information about breach of the agreement came directly from Belposhta administration. According to BAJ information, many regional editions will soon receive similar letters from regional and district branches of Belposhta.