Andrei Bastunets: Police does not have a right to set laws for journalists

Experts in the sphere of mass media express concern in connection of the statement of the deputy minister of Internal Affairs about the new format of journalists’ work during street rallies.

We remind that according to the words of the deputy Interior Minster Yauhen Paludzen, that since now police changes the form of work with journalists at mass rallies.

We remind that according to the words of the he press and police will work in such a way in the nearest time: there will be press-officers, policemen in blue vests at mass events. Journalists will be able to refer them on all questions.

Besides, deputy Interior Minster stated that journalists in fact would be prohibited to make pictures and video recording of the events. Paludzen referred to the experience of German police work during street rallies.

“We have taken the experience of German police, who work at street actions of right, left and green movements. The press can’t film faces of policemen and demonstrators. Only wide shots are allowed. I think we should use this experience,” he said.

The deputy chairman of the Belarusian Association of Journalists Andrei Bastunets comments on the initiative of the Interior Minister to www.charter97.org website.

- What do all these statements mean?

- It is a kind of “response” top the applications of the BAJ to the Prosecutor’s Office and the Interior Ministry with a request to bring to account the people who hindered work of journalists at the recent rallies in Minsk. As for closeup pictures of the faces, it is a response to the demand to announce the names of those who hindered the work of journalists on September 9, 16 and October 16. Whose faces they were? It is the reaction of the Interior Ministry to the pictures of the people in mufti, who hindered the work of journalists and which were published on the Internet.

- It follows from the statement of the Interior Ministry that journalists in fact are banned to make pictures and video recording during street rallies…

- Police is unauthorized to make laws for journalists. Statements of the Interior Ministry concern the work of their workers. In its turn, the work of journalists is regulated by the laws, including the Law on Mass media, which does not ban filming at street rallies.

- However, the Interior Ministry refers to the experience of Germany. What is meant by that?

- Our people like to mention experience of other countries. In several countries a norm exists, according to which a journalist who makes a close-up, should take permission from the person he or she is shooting. However, there are no such regulations in Belarus. Besides, the Law on Mass Media states that any kind of coverage is permitted during mass events.

- But there is a threat that journalists would have to play according to the rules of the Interior Ministry. Te most alarming in this statement is prohibition of close-ups of rally participants and policemen. In any case, journalists are to be guided not by statements of high-ranking police officers, but by the legal framework.