Chief editor of private weekly in Volkovysk gets down to work after 20-day hunger strike :: Charter'97 :: News

Andrei Shentorovich, owner and editor-in-chief of the Volkovysk-based weekly Mestnaya Gazeta, has gotten down to work following a 20-day hunger strike in protest against the information ministry`s decision to suspend the publication of the newspaper for a month. The next Mestnaya Gazeta issue is to get out on November 17.

Mr. Shentorovich stopped the strike on November 9 at the advice of doctors after feeling much worse.

As he told BelaPAN, he no longer saw any reason to use this method of drawing the authorities’ attention to the inequity imposed on him, as they never responded to his appeals. He said that the authorities regarded him as a terrorist because nobody holds talks only with terrorists. "Not only during the strike but also during the three years of the publication`s existence, the authorities simply ignored me and the 8,000 readers of the paper," he said.

His other demand was to examine what he called video evidence of irregularities in October`s parliamentary elections and referendum. The local prosecutor’s office collected his video records for examination, but he has not yet received any official reply.

The journalist said in an interview with BelaPAN that he had received thousands of letters in support of his newspaper. He thanked all the people who supported him and collected signatures in protest against the newspaper`s suspension, and expressed gratitude to his colleagues and the Belarusian Association of Journalists.