Zhana Litvina: Regime is closing from journalists
1- 22.05.2009, 14:30
The head of the Belarusian Association of Journalists states that the society which is deprived of information, is to slide into economic, political and social crisis inevitably.
On May 22 a congress of the Belarusian Association of Journalists took place. A report about activities of the organisation was presented there, BelaPAN informs.
As said by the BAJ leader Zhana Litvina, one of the global problems of Belarusian journalism now is access to information.
“The regime is becoming more and more shut from journalists. The law about state service in Belarus encourages that; it obligated civil servants to get approvals from officials of a higher rank any information which is given to journalists. The institute of accrediting in the country is used as a way to limit information. It especially concerns those journalists who contribute to foreign mass media. On the one hand, the Foreign Ministry denies accreditation to them, and on the other hand, the prosecutor’s office issues warning for working for foreign media,” Litvina said.
She also noted that as before, monopolists in newspapers distribution, state-run companies Belsayuzdruk and Belposhta, influences dissemination of information as before. As said by Litvina, 13 independent newspapers cannot enter into agreement on the distribution with them still. As the head of the BAJ believes, normalization of the relations between Belarus and the EU could help to change the situation.
“In all recommendations on liberalization of these relations there is such an item as demands to improve the situation with mass media in Belarus. These recommendations have had such an influence that “Narodnaya Volya” and “Nasha Niva” newspapers have returned into the state system of distribution. They have not just returned into the national network of distribution, but have increased their print run considerably, the chair of the BAJ noted. However, as said by her, no system-level changes in the media sphere of Belarus are observed. “And unfortunately, there are no hopes for that,” summed up Litvina.
