Swedish journalist: Official Minsk not ready for democratization

A Swedish representative of the international journalist mission Joanna Kurosz has not received a Belarusian visa. According to Ms. Kurosz, she has been refused due to her work for “Civil Rights Defenders”, the former Helsinki Committee.

Joanna Kurosz: “The reason seems to be the same as the one when I was refused. They do not like independent human rights organizations speaking about the situation concerning human rights in Belarus”, she said in an interview to the European Radio for Belarus.

Joanna Kurosz thinks that such actions of the Belarusian authorities and the Belarusian Embassy in particular have not remained unnoticed by European institutions and has demonstrated again that the official Minsk is not ready for democratization.

We remind that the mission of international organizations dealing with protection of journalists’ rights, development of mass media and issues of will expression is working in Belarus on September 21-23.