Computers taken from the Narodnaya Volya (Photo) :: Charter'97 :: News

The PC monitors and other office equipment were taken from the office of the editors’ board of the non-state –owned “Narodnaya Volya” newspaper by the court officials on Friday 10 August when the management of the periodical was out of the office.

In the afternoon the Minsk Leninsky district court official Syargey Klimau and his colleagues appeared at the editors’ board office of the Narodnaya Volya. At that moment the management of the periodical was out of the office. There were only several employees there. The court official took away 7 monitors, Xerox machine and other items of office equipment and left the corresponding act of confiscation for the top management, the press- service of the Belarusian Association of Journalists reports.

As the court official explained the equipment was confiscated due to non-fulfillment of the court judgment by the editors’ board.

According to the chief editor Iosif Syaredzich the confiscation procedure was committed with the law violations, i.e. in the absence of the top management .Among the confiscated items there were those which were urgently needed for publishing process. Moreover, part of the confiscated belongings were privately owned (some journalist under the agreement with the editors’ board use their private PCs at work).

On Monday 13 August after the negotiations of the chief editor and the Leninsky district court and the penalty payment the equipment was returned.

It is to be mentioned that late last year under the Minsk Leninsky district court judgment the editors’ board of the Narodnaya Volya and the author of the news-story had to pay Br 2 million to the general director of the “Ekanomica I Zakon” Ltd Alyaksandr Kautunenka. The claim of A. Kautunenka to the Narodnaya Volya was caused by “The Minsk Butava” news-story published in issues NN 140-141 of September 2006.

The news-story which offended the businessman ran about the Minsk inhabitant Volga Adamovich who had become a person without permanent abode after her private house in the center of the city next to the construction site of the prestigious block of flats had been destroyed. A Kautunenka was the head of the building company engaged in the above-mentioned construction.

Firstly the claimant submitted 14 charges to the newspaper and claimed for USD 100 million penalties from the newspaper and from the author, each. Finally the court satisfied only one charge and decreased the penalty amount to Br 1.5 million for the newspaper and 500 thousand for the author of the news-story.

According to Syaredzich , the court judgment was not implemented on time as its changing was highly probable.