19th November, the chief editor of ARCHE magazine, Valer Bulhakau, received a letter from the Vice-Chairman of the State Customs Committee, Siarhei Barysiuk, considering confiscation of 10 copies of the magazine on Belarusian-Polish border. According to the letter, “propaganda of extremism” was found out by KGB officers in issue 7-8 of ARCHE, online version of “Nasha Niva” reports. Materials on the case were submitted to the Maskouski district Court of Brest (center of south-western region of Belarus) with a request to recognize the seized magazine as extremist and to subsequently destroy it. 
 
The chief editor categorically disagrees with the officials’ decision. Mr Bulhakau thinks the real reason for the confiscation was different: “I am sure neither our authors, nor their articles have anything to do with declaring the issue extremist. What I see here is a misdoing of our security and law enforcement agencies, as well as a stupid and disgusting intimidation. Their message means: whether your media is registered or not, I will be the one who decides whether you are allowed to go abroad”.
 
“ARCHE” magazine publishes dozens of works written by respected Belarusian and foreign writers, intellectuals, and columnists. It is the only Belarusian-language magazine belonging to Eurozine, a network of European cultural journals.
 
The practice of declaring various independent medias extremist is quite wide-spread in Belarus. Earlier this autumn a number of trials were held “On declaring informational materials extremist” in Hrodna (center of western region of Belarus). The press office of the Belarusian Association of Journalists reports that as many as nine well-known journalists and civil activists were found guilty in those cases.