Michael Scanlan:  Odes and panegyrics cannot replace truthful reports

There continues to be wide discrepancy between press freedom and government practices in Belarus directed against independent media and restricting their freedom.

This remark was made by US Chargé d'Affaires Michael Scanlan at the event on occasion of the World Press Freedom Day at the information department of the US Embassy in Minsk on May 3, BelaPAN reports.

Giving a platform for public discussions, the free press provides a priceless opportunity to control the government and the authorities. Odes and panegyrics cannot replace truthful reports, Scanlan stressed.

Conditions of running business should be equal for state and independent media, he added noting that media should be the forth branch of government. Society suffered from hindering free expression of ideas, he said.

The  Chargé d'Affaires called on journalists to make truthful and sensitive reports about events in Belarus.

A former Washington Post editor, Kevin Klose, had a live link-up with representatives of the Belarusian independent press. Klose encouraged journalists to keep to professional standards and expressed his confidence Belarus's isolation would end and the country would integrate in global processes.

The US Embassy organized a link-up with Vilnius, where editor-in-chief of the pro-opposition charter97.org website, Natallia Radzina, welcomed participants of the event.