Lukashenka’s supporter offered to expel independent journalists from Belarus

Vera Pratasevich, the editor of the newspaper of Barysau district executive committee “Adzinstva”, in her newspaper defined who is a decent journalist and who is not, and advised “the dishonorable” to “shift their place of residence and leave the country.”

The motive for the article under the title “Below in rank, poorer in talent…” in the column “Let’s reflect together” in Nr 2913836, January 11, 2012 in “Adzinstva” was alleged information theft from the website and pages of the executive committee’s newspaper “by the so-called independent websites”. The editor-in-chief Vera Pratasevich tells that “while decent journalists from large portals like BelTA, TUT.by copy an article and pictures with the name of the author and the name of the newspaper, others which are below in rank and with poorer talent, simply distort information, garnishing it by their own speculations and insinuations, and publish another spoof story on the omnivorous web. I can tell you even more, there were cases when representatives of “independent” mass media impudently presented themselves as journalists of “Adzinstva” to receive someone’s interview,” Vyasna human rights centre informs.

To all appearances, she meant the incident when a photographer of an independent Barysau website ex-Press.by Alyaksandr Zyankou was detained by policemen, and the main complaint of the policemen was the fact that the journalist had allegedly presented himself as a worker of the official newspaper. “I do not need to present myself as a staffer of the official newspaper, and moreover, it is a dishonour to me in a way,” Alyaksandr said then.

The editor of the executive committee’s newspaper gives an evaluation to the work of independent journalists: “…they are trying to make fun of not only the authorities, but everyone of us, living in Belarus. And it does not matter whether they are speaking about a child or a pensioner. Anyone who supports the authorities is simply an enemy for them. But isn’t it easier to shift the place of residence and change the country, when everyone is an enemy there? – the reader may ask. They can certainly leave, but they will immediately lose the stream of money from their “sponsors”, which is considerable, believe me. That is why these pseudo-actors go any length, agree to any provocations to demonstrate their “working efficiency” to the “stage directors of the theatre of the absurd”. A particular heroism for them (and an additional opportunity to receive royalties in foreign currency) is to commit a criminal act and be detained by police.”

“I was born in this country, like my parents and grandparents,” the journalist of the independent website ex-Press.by Viktoryja Ravinskaya comments on the proposal to leave her country. “I am a citizen of Belarus. No one else except myself could decide whether I should stay here or emigrate. And in addition, I do not consider even Vera Pratasevich, the editor of the executive committee’s newspaper, to be my enemy. And the statement that every citizen of Belarus is an enemy for me, I think is a conscious (and rather mean) ideological absurdness to please the today’s “master”. There is simply nothing to steal from “Adzinstva”. What could be stolen from them? Information about the strike of community services’ workers? Or about detention of a collector of signatures for holding the People’s Assembly? There is no such information at their pages, and it would not appear as long as the current regime exists in this country.”

A human rights activist Aleh Matskevich has commented on the article in the executive committee’s newspaper in the following way: “The name itself “Below in rank, poorer in talent…” makes us think: who is defining ranks for journalists? What are the measures according to which the editor of the state-run newspaper defines that independent journalists are not as talented? And could citizens of Belarus be offered to leave their motherland just become they do not accept the today’s regime (which is not identical to the society, by the way)? The task of a journalist in every country is to control the authorities, and not to sing praises. Such statements of the editor of a state-run newspaper demonstrate that the entire notion of “state-run media” should be liquidated. So there will be fewer grounds for creating medieval “table of ranks” for different newspapers. The only state-run mass media should be bulletins about legislative acts passed by State government bodies of different levels.”