Pro-democracy newspaper charges opposition party high rental fees
Dzmitry Shymanski: “Social Democrats pay Br700,000 ($300) for 40 sq.m. or 17500 per one sq.m. We pay Br50000 per one square meter or three times more!”
He also complains that the newspaper’s management demanded that he pay Br250,000 per month retrospectively since November 5. What stands behind this increase? Perhaps, the appetite has grown since the Belarusian Television ran a report last year, showing Mr Shymanski detained near the US embassy with $1000 allegedly seized from him.
Dzmitry Shymanski: “Yes, apparently. They have heard something somewhere, but I really don’t know”.
Nikolai Alexandrov, the editor-in-chief of Brest Courier, said: “Shushkevich (Belarusian Social Democratic Party) pays more. Dzmitry pays the minimum. Our decisions are made by a council of 10 share-holders. The decision had been taken before the New Year, and I was not in the position to revise it”.
Alexandrov also said that their decision was not influenced by the notorious Belarusian Television’s video. “Our council’s majority wants the parties which cannot find a legal address to have it in our offices and continue working”.
One can understand the editor-in-chief and the newspaper’s council: the newspaper needs to survive. Actually, Shymanski also said that he did not want to fall out with the editor-in-chief.
Office rental fees in central Brest reaches Euro 15 per one square meter. The three-storey restaurant Brest which is located in the city center and lets out many office spaces told the European Radio for Belarus there is a simple relation between the rented spaces and the rental fees. The bigger the rented spaces are, the fees can drop as low as to Euro 5 per one square meter.
