Aidan White: “Belarusian authorities open themselves up to ridicule across Europe”

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) sharply condemns the official warning issued to the Belarus Association of Journalists (BAJ) by the Justice Ministry.

“To charge a journalists' association with illegally issuing press cards is a sign that the government of Belarus is so anti independent media that it has lost all sense of proportion and reality," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. “It uses every bureaucratic trick in the trade to squeeze the life out of independent journalism. It opens itself up to ridicule across Europe”, baj.by website quotes the text of the report.

The influential journalists organization reminds about the international mission to Belarus which visited the country last September to review the status of the media which was received by the then Minister of Information. The mission found that despite the thin veneer of symbolic reforms in 2009, little could conceal the fact that Belarus continues to operate a highly repressive media environment.

“It appears that BAJ are being targeted for punishment for their courage, leadership and determination to fight for their members' rights," added Marc Gruber, European Co-Director of the IFJ. “It is not for government to decide who can be a journalist and who can carry a press card. The only thing that our colleagues are guilty of is representing journalists.”

The IFJ is the largest world association of journalists. It was founded in 1926. Today the Federation unites about 600,000 members from more than 100 countries of the world. The BAJ is the IFJ member since 1997.