Journalists driven out of Vitaut ballet’s premier

Belsat’s accredited journalists could not watch the ballet, because they decided to take a commentary from the Ministry of Culture.

Aliaksandr Barazienka and <>bAlieh Razhkou came to the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater on 5 September to see the premier of the ballet Vitaut, Belarusian Associations of Journalists’ press-service reports.

The journalists started filming the event’s guests, among whom there was the Minister of Culture Barys Sviatlou, Central Electoral Commision’s chairwoman Lidzija Jarmoshyna and another high-level officials.

“We were let in and started filming. But when we approached the minister to record a commentary, scared administrator showed up nearby and said that we had to leave the event”, - Alieh Razhkou told.

The journalists got accredited for the event in advance, giving their names and the name of the TV channel, for which they filmed. No signals on the cancellation of the accreditation came from the theater, there was even a preliminary agreement on an interview with the show’s director. It turned out, the journalists were crossed off the list of the accredited for the event in the last minute – the deputy director said that Belsat did not have an MFA’s accreditation hence did not have a right to attend the event.

“The journalists came to a cultural event in no way related to politics, and they got driven out because of some farfetched political reason. It is actually a very unpleasant situation”, - Alieh Razhkou noted.