The Language On Trial!

[KatkouskiV]

Please, forward it to all interested parties...

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BELARUSIAN LANGUAGE ON TRIAL
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On August 12, 1998 the Supreme Economical Court of the
Republic of Belarus will have to make a decision about
the destiny of the oldest Belarusian newspaper Nasha Niva.

 The newspaper was founded in 1906, and in 1991 the publication
of Nasha Niva was resumed.  Now Nasha Niva is a socio-political
and cultural democratic weekly.  The newspaper is the only one
independent edition in Belarus, which publishes materials
exclusively in Belarusian.

The occasion for legal proceedings and the threat of the
closing of the newspaper as a result -- alleged usage
of the "non-standard, not approved" non-Soviet Belarusian
orthography (known under the name of "tarashkevitsa"), which
is used by Nasha Niva.

Earlier, on May 29 1998, the editorial staff of Nasha Niva received
the notification letter from the State Commitee on Mass-Media of
Republic of Belarus.  In this letter the State Commitee found the
newspaper's guilty of violating the decree of Council of People's
Commissares (SNK) of Belarusian Soviet Socialistic Republic of
1933.

Judicial action brought against Nasha Niva by the Supreme Economic
 Court  is not a liguistic issue, but a politically motivated move
against the independent Belarusian newspaper and Belarusian
values of independence, which Nasha Niva professes.

Today, in the end of the twentieth century, the authorities of
the Republic of Belarus accuse the newspaper of violations,
using as a basis the laws that were passed during the most
brutal times of Stalin's totalitarism.

Here is the address of the Supreme Economical Court of
the Republic of Belarus:

Volodarski str., 8-413,
Minsk, Belarus.

Siarhiej Dubaviec