ARCHE Magazine Suspended for 3 Months

21.09.2006.

On September 21 the editorial team of ARCHE magazine received a letter from Information Ministry dated September 19, 2006. The letter contains the second warning and notification about suspension of the magazine for three months, reports www.nn.by
The magazine is warned for violation of Article 11 of the “Law on Press and Other Mass Media”. The official reason is that the editorial team has changed the themes (specialization) of the magazine and began printing articles on socio-political problems. Information Ministry suspended ARCHE for three months, referring to Art. 16 of the “Law on Press and other Mass Media”.

Magazine’s editor-in-chief Valer Bulhakau believes that the real reason for suspension is the last issue of the magazine (No. 9, 2006). The cover of the magazine shows faces of special services officers pushing out demonstrators from the main avenue during March 25 events in Minsk.

“Censors could have disliked the 60 pages of reminiscence by former MPs about eviction of hunger-strikers from an Oval hall of the Supreme Soviet in April 1995, and reprinting of speeches of Lukashenka and colonel Tsesavets, who was in charge of the operation,” V. Bulhakau points out in an interview to Nasha Niva.

It is worth mentioning that early in 2005 the Information Ministry received an appeal of ARCHE editors asking to re-register it as a socio-political periodical. However, the Ministry ignored the appeal.

According to Valer Bulhakau, it’s a third warning to ARCHE since 2004 for “unauthorized” change of themes, and the first suspension in the history of the magazine.