Andrei Skurko: “The most interesting things will start as soon as they send us the figures of written-off copies”
Andrei Skurko, "Nasha Niva" Editor-in-chief arranged a press-conference at the BAJ office. It was dedicated to the "mysterious" disappearance of the larger part of "Nasha Niva" print-run, published on July 7, 2010.
It appeared to be impossible to get an official response about the disappeared print-run from the "Sayuzdruk" network enterprises. Some "Sayuzdruk" representatives stated that the newspaper copies had been received and got sold out. Others noted that they hadn’t received the copies of "Nasha Niva" for sale and didn’t know the reasons for that situation.
However, unofficially, the "Sayuzdruk" representatives confirmed to the newspaper editorial members that the "disappearance" hadn’t been as traceless as that. "They told us in private talks that the print-run had been "stopped," and some of them used the word "seized," A. Skurko said.
A. Skurko believes that the most interesting things will start as soon as the "Sayuzdruk" enterprise submits the number of written-off copies of the disappeared newspaper issue. "If the number of written-off copies is huge, it will mean that "Sayuzdruk" will secretly confirm the seizure of "Nasha Niva" #25 print-run, published on July 7, 2010. Otherwise, the enterprises will have to transfer money to us for selling the newspaper issue."
The "Nasha Niva" editorial has submitted a letter to "Belsayuzdruk" National Unitary Enterprise with a demand to explain the disappearance of the newspaper print-run. Moreover, the newspaper editorial is preparing an appeal to the National Public Prosecutor’s Office. Andrei Skurko doesn’t exclude that there might be submitted a claim to the Supreme Economic Court, since the newspaper faced considerable material damage as a result of manipulations."
3485 copies of "Nasha Niva" were passed to "Belsayuzdruk" news-stalls. It means that we lose 4 million 47 thousand and 131 Belarusian roubles with VAT, the Editor-in-chief said.
Andrei Skurko shared his observations and noted that the theme of a scandalous documentary, broadcast by NTV and scandalous publications that appeared in the Russian media a week before, quite a few Belarusian media left the news without proper attention. "It would be unnatural on the part of "Nasha Niva" to abstain from writing about the issues, since we are led by the principles of democratic countries in our work, i.e. we are to cover the topics that present interest to our readers, the Editor-in-chief emphasized.
