December 30, Pozirk. Viačasłaŭ Chadasoŭski, a founder and former chief editor of the independent newspaper Belorusy i Rynok, has died in Belarus aged 78, his daughter in law Maryna Chadasoŭski said on Facebook.
Belorusy i Rynok (known as Belorussky Rynok before it was forced by the government to change its name) was founded in late 1990. It came out as a weekly and a monthly economic newspaper.
Chadasoŭski worked as its chief editor until 2015.
In December 2022, the information ministry annulled its registration after blocking access to its website, belmarket.by, six months earlier. Now the website is accessible both in Belarus and abroad.
Its staff has faced persecution and hard life in exile.
In April 2023, a Minsk judge sentenced Kanstancin Załatych, Chadasoŭski’s associate, to four years in prison on charges of inciting social hatred and insulting an official widely believed to be politically motivated.
Załatych was released in October and moved to Warsaw in December.
Andrej Aleksandrovič, editor in chief of Belorusy i Rynok, died in exile in Warsaw in February 2024. He was forced to flee the country in May 2023.
