Narodnaja Volya (newspaper)

Establishment and early years

On March 17, 1995, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko fired Iosif Siaredzich from his post of the editor-in-chief at Narodnaja Gazeta. However, according to the state's law, only the Parliament could reappoint chief editors. After the dismissal, Siaredzich launched his independent newspaper and called it Narodnaja Volya.{{cite news |access-date = 2020-07-30

The first issue of Narodnaja Volya was published on July 11, 1995. Siaredzich served as the editor-in-chief, and the deputy chief editor was Ivan Makalovich.{{cite news |trans-title=Censorship was Worse only under Czarism |access-date = 2020-08-02

2000s

Lawsuits and fines

By 2001 Narodnaja Volya circulation reached 50,000. In August 2001 the authorities halted publication of the regular issue.{{cite web |access-date = 2020-07-24

On November 17, 2003, the Minsk City Court on 17 ordered Narodnaya Volya to pay (approx. US$23,000) in damages for libel against Yahor Rybakou, the chairman of the Belarusian State Television and Radio Company (BDT). The Court also ordered Narodnaya Volya journalist Maryna Koktysh and former television host Eleanora Yazerskaya to pay each to Rybakou. After an appeal, the fines for the journalists were reduced to , but the fine for the newspaper wasn't changed. On June 11, 2004, more than 400 people gathered on the October Square in Minsk to show their support to Narodnaya Volya.{{cite web |access-date = 2020-07-30

In 2005 the court ordered the newspaper to pay (approx. US$46,500) to head of the Liberal Democratiс Party Sergei Gaidukevich.{{cite web |access-date = 2020-07-24 |trans-title=Pushcha of Oppression |access-date = 2020-07-30

In 2007 Leninsky District Court ordered Narodnaya Volya to pay a fine of to the chief of the Main Ideological Administration of the President of Belarus Oleg Proleskovsky, reporter Marina Koktysh was personally fined .{{cite web |access-date = 2020-07-30

Meanwhile, only in 2011 more than three times the newspaper claims were rejected by Belarusian courts.

Crackdown

In 2004 International Press Freedom Award laureate Svetlana Kalinkina accepted an editorial position at Narodnaja Volya. In 2004 Iosif Siaredzich wrote letters to Minsk court in protection of Leonid Svetik, a high school teacher and political activist, who was prosecuted by authorities for criticizing the government.{{cite web |access-date = 2020-07-30

In 2005 the weekly circulation was around 150,000 copies. On September 20, 2005, without any notification, bailiffs entered the editors office and distrained all its property, Narodnaya Volya's bank account was arrested.{{cite web |trans-title= Narodnaya Volya Fights for Survival |access-date = 2020-07-24 |trans-title = Deputy Abramova Appeals to the Government to Resolve Issues with Block of Non-governmental Press |access-date = 2020-07-30 |archive-date = 2021-02-26 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210226224602/https://news.tut.by/politics/76447.html |url-status = dead |access-date = 2020-07-10 |trans-title=Minsk State Economic Court to Grant Narodnaja Volya Claim |access-date = 2020-07-24 |access-date = 2020-07-10 |access-date = 2020-07-10 |trans-title=Union of Right Forces Russian Political Party to Finance Belarusian Opposition Newspaper 'Narodnaya Volya' |access-date = 2020-07-30 |access-date = 2020-07-24 |access-date = 2020-07-30

On October 19, 2005, Narodnaja Volya freelance journalist Vasiliy Grodnikov was found dead with a head wound.{{cite web |access-date = 2020-07-10 |trans-title=Veronika Cherkasova Murder Investigation |access-date = 2020-07-24 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210305021105/https://www.voanews.com/archive/committee-protect-journalists-requests-investigation-belarusian-reporters-death |url-status = dead |archive-date = March 5, 2021 |access-date = 2020-07-10

Beginning on 1 January 2006, the Belarusian post office refused to distribute the paper, and an entire print run of 30,000 copies was confiscated by police on 9 January. When citizens of Salihorsk began a petition on the paper's behalf, police made visits to the homes of the signatories to interrogate them.

In March 2006 in Minsk several thousand copies of the newspaper were confiscated by the police.{{cite web |access-date = 2020-07-10 |trans-title=Russian Printshop to Break Contract with Belarusian Non-State Media |access-date = 2020-07-24 |access-date = 2020-07-10

Since November 2005 the runs dropped from 70 to 15 thousand.{{cite web |trans-title=Whose Interests Pursue Belarusian Media? |access-date = 2020-07-30 |trans-title=Narodnaja Volya Goes to Web |access-date = 2020-07-30 |trans-title=Independent Newspapers Allow to Return Because Paper Media Lost Its Power |access-date = 2020-07-24 |trans-title=Circulations and Hopes Raise among Belarusian Independent Media |access-date = 2020-07-24

On December 11, 2009, a bomb threat call was made to the editors office, causing an evacuation of the staff. During the evacuation chief editor Svetlana Kalinkina's office had been broken into.{{cite news |access-date = 2020-07-30

2010s

The presidential election 2010 in Belarus was scheduled on December, 19. The election period was marked with severe oppression of press and independent media.{{cite web |access-date = 2020-07-10 |access-date = 2020-07-10 |access-date = 2020-07-10 |access-date = 2020-07-10 |access-date = 2020-07-10

Harassment of press and journalists

In 2010 the newspaper received four official warnings from the government.

On April 7, 2010, the picket of veterans took place in front of the editors office. The veterans, supported by unknown sportive-looking young men, protested against the publication of chapters from Ilya Kopil's book on the Second World War, accusing it for propaganda of fascism and falsification of history.{{cite web |access-date = 2020-07-10 |trans-title=For Triumph over Newspaper |access-date = 2020-07-24 |trans-title= Narodnaya Volya Faces Picket Again |access-date = 2020-08-02

On February 17, 2011, deputy editor Marina Koktysh was questioned by the police, the editors office was searched.{{cite web |trans-title=Marina Koktysh: I Can't Hear Any More on KGB or Police |access-date = 2020-07-24 |trans-title=Assaults on Press in 2010: Belarus |access-date = 2020-07-30

On 29 April 2011, the Information Ministry again attempted to shut down Narodnaja Volya and another independent newspaper Nasha Niva, filing a motion with the Supreme Economic Court of Belarus for the newspaper's closure.{{cite web |trans-title=Elimination of Independent Newspapers in Belarus: Is the Threat Real? |access-date = 2020-07-24 |access-date = 2020-07-24 |access-date = 2020-07-10 |access-date = 2020-07-10 |access-date = 2020-07-30

In 2008 Marina Koktysh was refused journalist accreditation to the House of Representatives of the Belarusian parliament.{{cite news |trans-title=Courts Like Suits against Narodnaja Volya and Refuse Its Claims |access-date = 2020-07-24 |access-date = 2020-07-24

Through the years, she was forcibly removed from a train from Vilnius by Belarusian border control, had her car and computers arrested, phone calls surveilled, called to question in KGB and the General Prosecutors Office.{{cite web |access-date = 2020-07-24 |archive-date = 2021-02-26 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210226225349/https://news.tut.by/society/291342.html |url-status = dead |trans-title=Marina Koktysh Gets Doctor House Disks Back, but not the PC |access-date = 2020-07-24 |access-date = 2020-07-24 |trans-title=KGB is Back |access-date = 2020-07-24 |access-date = 2020-07-30 |access-date = 2020-07-30 |access-date = 2020-07-30 |access-date = 2020-07-24

In 2015 at a press conference Lukashenko said to Siaredzich that he knows nothing about any oppression against the newspaper and he would not prosecute it for publishing the opposition views.{{cite news |trans-title = Narodnaja Volya Chief Editor Tells President Lukashenko about Oppression from Information Ministry |access-date = 2020-07-24 |archive-date = 2021-02-26 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210226222657/https://news.tut.by/society/433522.html |url-status = dead

Temporary liberalization

On April 1, 2016, Svetlana Kalinkina resigned from her post of editorial director. According to the mutual agreement with the editor's office, she kept cooperating with Narodnaja Volya as a journalist.{{cite web |access-date = 2020-07-24 |access-date = 2020-07-30 |trans-title=Svetlana Alexievich to Subscribe 108 Libraries on Narodnaja Volya |access-date = 2020-07-30

In 2017 Iosif Siaredzich was invited for a private meeting with Alexander Lukashenko, where the president reassured that no oppression on independent and opposition press would be done. Lukashenko said that his blood boiled when he read 'false news and reports' in Narodnaja Volya, but still, he promised to return 8 publications in state subscription catalogues.{{cite news |trans-title=Lukashenko: My Blood Boils when I Read Narodnaja Volya |access-date = 2020-07-24 |trans-title=Authorities and Media in Belarus: Old Issues, New Signals |access-date = 2020-07-24

In December 2018 the newspaper launched a crowdfunding campaign to subscribe all rural, district and regional libraries to Narodnaja Volya. The initiative aimed to give access to the publication to people with low income, who couldn't afford to buy the newspaper.{{cite web |trans-title= 'Narodnaya Volya' Crowd-funds Subscription to Libraries |access-date = 2020-07-30

Further pressure

On August 25, 2020, the Belarusian Press House refused to print the latest issue of Narodnaja Volya, as if due to a breakdown of the printing press. Within the same timeframe and for the same reason, three issues of Komsomolskaya Pravda in Belarus and one for BelGazeta and Svobodnye Novosti Plus each were not published – all four newspapers covered the 2020–21 Belarusian protests.

In August 2021 Siaredzich was refused accreditation to the annual 'Big Talk' press-conference with Alexander Lukashenko.{{cite web |access-date = 2021-08-23

Awards

• Marina Koktysh won Gerd Bucerius Press Prize (2010);{{cite web |access-date = 2020-07-24
• Marina Koktysh won the Love Belarus award in Journalism (2012);{{cite web |trans-title=Marina Koktysh: I've Never Thought the Question to Lukashenko would Resonate This Much |access-date = 2020-07-24
• Winner of BAJ Free Word Competition (2012);{{cite web |trans-title=BAJ to Name Winners of Free Word Competition |access-date = 2020-07-30
• Iosif Siaredzich received honorary diploma from BAJ for 'Many years of outstanding work for freedom of speech and professional journalism' (2019);{{cite web |access-date = 2020-07-24

References

Sources

• {{cite book |trans-title=The Time of Unfulfilled Hopes
• {{cite journal
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• {{cite book
• {{cite book | trans-title = Person vs. State: Practice of Appealing to UN Treaty Bodies in Belarus
• {{cite journal |trans-title=Image of Russia as an Informational Construct in Post USSR Space (Based on 'Narodnaja Volya' newspaper)
• {{cite journal |archive-date = 2020-11-27 |access-date = 2020-08-05 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201127230350/https://baj.by/sites/default/files/analytics/files/smi_u_belarusi_2011_rus.pdf |url-status = dead

References

1. (11 January 2006). "Police seize opposition daily's print run; CPJ condemns repeated harassment of newspaper". International Freedom of Expression Exchange.
2. (2004). "2004 IPFA Svetlana Kalinkina". Committee to Protect Journalists.
3. Norwegian Helsinki Committee. (19 September 2010). "NHC expresses concerns regarding threats against journalists in Belarus". Human Rights House.
4. (2 May 2011). "Two newspapers threatened with closure". International Freedom of Expression Exchange.
5. ЕЎРАРАДЫЁ. (2020-08-25). "Трэцяя газета не змагла надрукавацца ў "Беларускім доме друку"". [[European Radio for Belarus]].
6. ЕВРОРАДИО. (2020-08-25). "Третья газета не смогла напечататься в "Белорусском доме печати"". [[European Radio for Belarus]].
7. ЕЎРАРАДЫЁ. (2020-08-25). ""Беларускі дом друку" адмовіўся друкаваць і нумар "Свободных новостей"". [[European Radio for Belarus]].
8. ЕВРОРАДИО. (2020-08-25). ""Белорусский дом печати" отказался печатать и номер "Свободных новостей"". [[European Radio for Belarus]].