Belarusian journalists bring flowers to French embassy

Journalists express their deep condolences over the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine.

They emphasised at a meeting at the Embassy of France in Minsk that attacks on journalists, especially in a peaceful country in peacetime were unacceptable, charter97.org learnt from the press service of the Belarusian Association of Journalists.

“When our colleagues visit flashpoints, they realise the level of danger. But it is impossible to understand the situation when killings take place in peaceful countries. This is terrible. Terrorist acts cannot be excused,” BAJ head Zhanna Litvina said.

“Charlie Hebdo magazine is France's citadel of free speech. It criticises representatives of all spheres of public and political life actively and openly. We think all mass media in France and in the world should be like Charlie Hebdo - free and open. The tragedy of January 7 has hurt all people of France. We think that 12 people were killed in the centre of Paris yesterday and 66 million were wounded,” Elsa PIGNOL, the first Counselor to the Embassy of France in Belarus, said.

BAJ members stressed that yesterday's tragedy touched feelings of all Belarusian journalists, who know firsthand cases of killing journalists in Belarus in peacetime. They laid flowers and lit candles near the embassy and signed the book of condolence in the embassy's library (Svabody Square, 11).