Belarusian Association of Journalists Speaks in Support of ARCHE Magazine

28.09.2006.

On September 26 Belarusian Association of Journalists appealed to the Minister of Information Uladzimir Rusakevich in view of suspension of the independent literary, art and popular scientific magazine “ARCHE. The Beginning” for three months.

In its official letter BAJ urged the Minister to reverse the order that suspended the magazine and to cancel the official warning to the periodical.

“Sanctioning mass media for contents, while their publishers do not abuse mass media freedoms, should in our opinion be treated as interference in the activity of publishers and violation of their professional independence. According to article 48 of the law “On the press other mass media” such actions are regarded as “infringement of mass media freedom”, - mentioned BAJ in the letter to the Minister of Information. Also, the Association drew attention to the fact that “extrajudicial suspension of mass media activity by executive authorities breaks the international legal liabilities of the Republic of Belarus.” In particular, article 19 of the International treaty “On Civil and Political Rights”, ratified by Belarus and similar regulations, secured in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Independent States “On the Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms” were cited in the document.

“Appearance of materials about political and public life in any edition is not the evidence of the change of its subject-matter”, - stresses BAJ. Moreover, the Belarusian Association of Journalists emphasized that “the Belarusian legislation does not establish how many materials of this or that nature should be published in a periodical edition. ”According to the law, the founder must indicate an approximate, but not a definite subject-matter and (or) specialization of a medium.

It should be reminded that the Ministry of Information suspended “ARCHE” magazine for three months and sent a recurrent notification letter. The Minister accused “ARCHE. The Beginning” editorial team of changing the subject and failure to inform the officials about the change.

Press service of Belarusian Association of Journalists