Proposal to liquidate Information Ministry of Belarus heard in Riga

A discussion on problems of Belarusian journalists was held at the Eastern Partnership Media Conference.

The former chairman of the Belarusian Association of Journalists Zhana Litvina addressed the First Eastern Partnership Media Conference with a report about the situation in Belarus, Radio Svaboda informs.

“We have mired down in the Soviet legacy with one leg, since that time we inherited the attitude to mass media as engines of ideology and marginal participants. A. Lukashenka says in particular that ideology could not be privatized,” Zhana Litvina said.

As said by her, state-run media which have many economic preferences still dominate in Belarus. But patronage of the state makes these mass media week, and as an example Litvina offered the response of Belarusian state-run media to Russian-Ukrainian conflict:

“State-run media in Belarus shrug off responsibility for controversial moments, they are waiting for instructions. In the first weeks of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict state-run mass media of Belarus were silent completely, as the Belarusian leadership had not formed its attitude. It was a norm, silencing of the facts. State mass media were not able to formulate a position on the events in the neighbouring country themselves.”

According to Zhana Litvina, Belarus is the country which is exposed to propagandistic influence of Russia most, it is opened to Russia in terms of information, as a result two thirds of Belarusians trust Russian propaganda and are misinformed by it.

As said by Litvina, the audience of independent mass media in Belarus is not large, and the most important thing now is to expand the space for independent mass media.

Litvina informed about problems of journalists working without accreditation, and attempts of Belarusian authorities to control Internet. She told that after the recent amendments to the Law on Mass media were adopted, online media are considered equal to conventional mass media, and they face the problem of blocking.

“Blocking of websites has been tested already, and now it’s time for warnings from the Information Ministry. In this connection experts have already stated that violations of the International Covenant on Political Rights are taking place,” Litvina said.

After the speech of Zhana Litvina, Yury Byabeshka, a deputy chairman of the legal and cadres work department of the Information Ministry asked for the floor, to “present a different point of view”:

“The laws of Belarus in the sphere of mass media are developing with consideration for national peculiarities,” Byabeshka said.

“Monopolization of mass media is out of the question, as 80% of mass media in Belarus are non-governmental, and they work taking into account the diversity of opinions. Belarus is the 38th in the world according to the rating of telecommunications technologies, 5 millions of people have access to mass media. It’s true, the Information Ministry can limit access to online media, but since January 1 access to 18 websites was limited. 15 of them offered drugs, one – pornography, two dissenter web resources were blocked for dissemination of taboo words. It is in line with European traditions,” the representative of the Information Ministry of Belarus said.

One of the experts of the media conference, the chairman of Yerevan press club Boris Navasardyan asked permission to speak after Byabeshka, and called to liquidate the Information Ministry of Belarus in order to solve the problems of Belarusian mass media, as the ministry causes these problems.

“I hear about national peculiarities of freedom of speech for the first time… In Armenia we pressed for liquidation of the Information Ministry, and we were pleased when it finally happened,” Navasardyan said.