Zhanna Litvina leaves her post as BAJ head

The 9th report and election convention of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) is held today in Minsk.

Zhanna Litvina does not stand as a candidate for the BAJ head. She said it in an interview with Abazhur magazine ahead of the convention of the organisation with 1,500 members, according to the BAJ press service.

“I am grateful to my colleagues, who supported me at the previous convention and took normally the wave of defamation that was organised to destroy the organisation. We survived it together!” she says. “But there's a public fatigue law. Both heads of state and civil activists can suffer from it.

You understand one day that you have dignity. One must take a decision to quit consciously, on time and honourably. I feel that I need to make such a decision to preserve self-respect, though the BAJ remains an integral part of my life.

I am grateful to those with whom I have been working for 20 years.

I'd like to draw a line under the period in the BAJ history characterised by ongoing prosecution of journalists, strict control by the state and interference with our work. I'd like to hope that the most cruel challenges and ordeals and the most tragic events are things of the past.

I see that a new generation of journalists and BAJ leaders able to answer challenges of time has grown.

My resignation does not mean that I do not care about the future of the organisation. I am still a BAJ member. I will be happy if my experience will be useful.”

The BAJ Council will propose deputy head Andrei Bastunets as a new BAJ chairman, according to Nasha Niva.