BAJ Board Awards Honorary Diploma to Iosif Siaredzich

Siaredzich received the award before the cer­e­mo­ny of Free Word con­test.

— This year we have been think­ing about the award cer­e­mo­ny. We decid­ed to estab­lish spe­cial BAJ awards. We’ve got a leg­endary, out­stand­ing per­son — Iosif Siaredzich, who’s been run­ning Nar­o­d­naya Volya for 25 years. I admire Iosif’s courage and ener­gy that help to keep him the news­pa­per afloat in our coun­try, — aid BAJ chair­man Andrei Bas­tunets said.

• Iosif Siaredzich — Belaru­sian jour­nal­ist, edi­tor and pub­lish­er of Nar­o­d­naya Volya news­pa­per. Born in Zaba­raut­sy, Pin­sk dis­trict. He’s been in jour­nal­ism since 1967. He grad­u­at­ed from the Belaru­sian State Uni­ver­si­ty and the Acad­e­my of Social Sci­ences. Worked in Sel­skaya Haze­ta and Sovet­skaya Belorus­sia (until 1990).

• From May 1990 to Jan­u­ary 1996 — mem­ber of the Supreme Sovi­et of XII con­vo­ca­tion. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, from 1990 to 1995 he was edi­tor in chief of Nar­o­d­naya Haze­ta — the news­pa­per of the Supreme Soci­et of the Repub­lic of Belarus. On March 17, 1995 Alexan­der Lukashen­ka issued a decree appoint­ing Mikalai Halko as Nar­o­d­naya Haze­ta’s chief edi­tor, ignor­ing the man­date of the Supreme Sovi­et to appoint chief edi­tor of the news­pa­per.

• Iosif Siaredzich found­ed Nar­o­d­naya Volya, the first issue of which came out July 11, 1995. Since then, he has been serv­ing as the chief edi­tor of the news­pa­per.