• Actual
  • Law and the media
  • Helpful
  • Work areas and campaigns
  • Reviews and monitoring
  • Dairy Company Sues AP Journalist for Report about Radioactive Milk (Upd)

    On October 6, the judge upheld the motion to transfer the case of Milkavita against AP reporter to the Economic Court of Minsk.

    On Octo­ber 5, Mask­ous­ki dis­trict court in Min­sk start­ed hear­ing the law­suit that dairy com­pa­ny Milka­vi­ta filed against Yuras Kar­manau, Min­sk-based reporter for the Asso­ci­at­ed Press agency.

    Milka­vi­ta rep­re­sen­ta­tives argue that the jour­nal­ist has inflict­ed dam­age to busi­ness rep­u­ta­tion of the com­pa­ny and demand refu­ta­tion of his report not only on the web­site ap.org, but also in some oth­er media. The report “Test finds Cher­nobyl residue in Belarus milk” was pub­lished in AP Exclu­sive on April 25, 2016. How­ev­er, offi­cial reac­tion was that radi­a­tion in the milk was with­in the admis­si­ble norm.

    On the first day of the hear­ing, the reporter’s rep­re­sen­ta­tive Siarhei Zikrats­ki motioned to trans­fer the law­suit to the Eco­nom­ic Court of Min­sk. On Octo­ber 6, the judge upheld the motion.

    Andrei Bas­tunets, chair­per­son of BAJ, was also admit­ted to the hear­ing as rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Yuras Kar­manau. The plain­tiff is rep­re­sent­ed by lawyer Pavel Kaltunovich.

    Judge Ale­na Rud­nit­skaya for­bid pho­tos and video in the court room, and forced out three reporters who tried to take pic­tures dur­ing the process.

    BAJ press ser­vice asked Yuras Kar­manau sev­er­al ques­tions: what the details of the case were and why, in his view, the offi­cial reac­tion was so neg­a­tive.

    “In our inves­ti­ga­tion, we showed what real­ly was going on in the zone,” says Yuras Kar­manau. In the very zone, in the Poliessie Radioac­tive Reserve, behind the restric­tion fence, there is a state farm breed­ing hors­es. At the moment when the report was pre­pared, the farm had 250 hors­es. And they sold 100 hors­es to a com­pa­ny in Min­sk who adver­tise mare’s milk.

    We found a dairy farm near the radioac­tive reserve where cows graze the grass a kilo­me­ter away from the sign Stop! Radi­a­tion! And then the milk is sold to Milka­vi­ta fac­to­ry in Khoini­ki. The test revealed stron­tium sur­pass­ing the norm by 10 times!

    Also, we showed how aban­doned vil­lages are laid to waste, and the ter­ri­to­ries are plowed and return into agri­cul­tur­al lands.

    Final­ly, we revealed that Belarus has no tests for trans-ura­ni­um ele­ments that, accord­ing to the offi­cial sta­tis­tics, pol­lute around 2 per cent of Belarus. Every­body speaks of the dan­ger of ameri­ci­um. And we don’t even have the tests to detect its pres­ence in prod­ucts.”

    “We see that in Belarus Cher­nobyl issue is tabooed. First, milk has become a white oil for the state, export­ed to Rus­sia. Milka­vi­ta exports 90 per cent of its prod­ucts to Rus­sia, to Moscow. And it is essen­tial for the state to show that Belaru­sian milk is safe.

    Sec­ond, all attempts to inves­ti­gate the Cher­nobyl zone are faced with mor­bid reac­tion of the offi­cials. The state has closed the issue of Cher­nobyl. “Radi­a­tion is not seen, no one is born with two heads,” told us peo­ple from the farms and zone dwellers.

    Mean­time, the offi­cial sta­tis­tics says that occur­rence of thy­roid can­cer among chil­dren is 33 high­er than it used to be before the acci­dent at the Cher­nobyl nuclear plant.”

    The most important news and materials in our Telegram channel — subscribe!
    @bajmedia
    Most read
    Every day send to your mailbox: actual offers (grants, vacancies, competitions, scholarships), announcements of events (lectures, performances, presentations, press conferences) and good content.

    Subscribe

    * indicates required

    By subscribing to the newsletter, you agree to the Privacy Policy