Another “short leash” for journalists being prepared

Belarusian journalists think the statement of the deputy head of Lukashenka’s Administration on creation of “code of journalistic ethics” is immoral when there is no freedom of speech in the country.

Natallya Pyatkevich, the deputy head of Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s Administration, said the common Code of Journalistic Ethics should be created. According to Natallya Pyatkevich, reconciling and educating are the main aims of the document. The code is to reconcile independent journalists with those working for state-run media. The document is to inculcate journalists with a sense of responsibility before society.

“One cannot live in society and be free from society,” Natallya Pyatkevich proved her initiative. By the way, this thesis is a quotation form Lenin’s Party Organization and Party Literature. Pyatkevich, who started her career as a pres secretary of the Belarusian dictator, explains the governmental tone of news spreading with care of people. “The press must give only the information that the society is ready for,” she added.

Politologist and journalist Alyaksandr Klaskouski, however, believes this code won’t solve the problems in the Belarusian media environment.

In the opinion of the politologist, the authorities have learnt how to substitute concrete actions with “decorative things” in order to report to Europe: “Look, we are on the way to democratization and expanding freedom,” the journalist told in an interview to Deutsche Welle.

Will the message be an item of the code of ethics? Tatsyana Melnichuk, a member of the board of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, says such a statement is immoral. Society won’t develop if it is only be connived, the journalist says and compares the press with a teacher adhering to a principle “a child must know everything”. In order to teach the child, it is sometimes necessary to act against his or her wishes. We bringing up immorality by conniving, Melnichuk believes.

It’s not universal rules and laws that mutilate professional morality. Alyaksandr Klaskouski says the main problem of the Belarusian journalism is that it is monopolized and under the heat of the state. Journalists are divided into “honest” and “not honest” against their will, the expert notes.

The less the state interferes with the media, the more ethics the media have, Klaskouski believes. While journalists are being set against one another and making to deal with propaganda, independent press is being driven into a corner and marginalized, professional morality is suffering, the expert says.

Alyaksandr Klaskouski believes the current situation will hardly change in the nearest time. The authorities are not going to lose a propaganda press mouthpiece ahead of the presidential elections. The code of ethics will probably turn into another short leash for the independent press, the expert notes.

“It will be imposed voluntary-compulsory, they can do it. They will also blackmail, like it was with accreditation – if you didn’t sign a document, you won’t be allowed to a press conference,” Klaskouski forecasts.