Novychas2’s Weblog

On November 23, 2007 the editorial offices of newspaper Novy Chas received a court notice informing them of a civil suit filed by a member of the Council of the Republic, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations and National Security, Mr. Mikalay Charhinets. The plaintiff accuses the paper in publishing information that caused “defamation of his honor, dignity and damaged his business reputation at home and abroad.” Such information, according to him, is contained in an article printed in Novy Chas on September 24, 2007, issue #25.

Mr. Charhinets asks the court to oblige the defendants – private publishing enterprise News Times (publisher of the Novy Chas) and the author of the article – to publicly withdraw this information and pay damages in the amount of 500,000,000 Belarusian rubles by the newspaper and 100,000,000 by the author (totaling $280,000). The plaintiff also asks to “immediately freeze working capital and assets” of the enterprise News Times and the author. The court proceedings are scheduled on December 5, 2007.

This law suit is a politically motivated act directed at shutting down an independent newspaper. The lawsuit submitted by Mr. Charhinets does not contain any arguments rebutting the facts and opinions stated in the paper, only a list of quotation from the article. It is notable that despite his dismay at the article, Mr. Charhitens seriously accepted a humoristic title “senator-general” created by the journalist to describe the past and the present of the article’s subject. In his lawsuit Mr. Charhinets officially calls himself senator-general.

The political motivation of the suit is underlined by the fact that Mr. Charhinets did not undertake a single attempt to rebut the article in Novy Chas but turned to the court immediately. Novy Chas is ready and willing to offer its pages to Mr. Charhinets at any time.

Civil lawsuits filed by senior officials against independent media have become one of the instruments of general oppression of freedom of speech and elimination of independent media in Belarus. For example, newspaper Narodnaya Volya has been a subject of such charges three times in last few years. However, the amount of damages claimed by Mr. Charhinets is unprecedented, exceeding all damages ever claimed against Narodnaya Volya by 20 times. The real purposes of the suit become obvious when one considers the fact that Novy Chas resumed publication in March 2007 on the basis of weekly Zgoda, which was shut down by the authorities on March 17, 2006 on the eve of the presidential elections.

The lawsuit also illustrates the general policy toward shutting down civic society in Belarus. Thus, an independent Writers Union of Belarus was recently closed, and instead authorities formed a new, official one, chaired by Mr. Charhinets. The independent union is forced to work in complete underground. The weekly literary supplement “Belarus in Literature” printed in Novy Chas monthly has become one of the only two legal ways for writers to publish their work in Belarus.

All this is taking place against the background of the twelve conditions of the European Union to the government of Belarus and some signs of demonstration by the official Minsk toward readiness for a dialogue with the West. It is obvious, that such declarations do not go hand in hand with the actual policies of the Belarusian government. Characteristically, the delivery of the lawsuit to the paper’s offices coincided with the opening of the Belarus-Germany international forum in Minsk.