State Person Appointed As “Belarusky Chas” Editor :: Charter'97 :: News

On November 27 the editorial board of the newspaper “Belarusky Chas” – a mouthpiece of the Federation of trade unions – was presented their new editor Svetlana Balashova. Previously the woman used to work as the first deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper “7 Days”, while later – deputy head of the Direction for public and political broadcasting of the National State TV Company (BT).

Her predecessor at the post, previous “BC” editor and famous journalist Alexander Starikevich was placed at the head of the trade union newspaper months before the presidential elections 2001 campaign upon the invitation of the former FTU chair Vladimir Goncharik, who was nominated for the presidency from the wide public coalition, reminds BelaPAn. Starikevich made the newspaper more exciting and popular, while its print run augmented. However, this summer Starikevich was dismissed by the new FTU head Leonid Kozik contrary to the decision of the Federation’s presidium.
As deemed by Balashova, she, as a journalist, knows Leonid Kozik for a long time. Svetlana Balashova believes that “such a newspaper as “Belarusky Chas” must not be engaged in politics, but should rather be really massive”. “There’s nothing more poignant for a person than his own problems,” – noted she.