Journalist of "European Radio for Belarus" denied accreditation to press-conference at House of Representatives
The journalist of
the European Radio for Belarus Zmitser Lukashuk has been denied
accreditation for today’s conference in the lower chamber of
Parliament.
The journalist was denied accreditation
because he does not have a yearly accreditation from Parliament, said
the communication director of the House of Representatives Mikalai
Lis.
The press-conference was dedicated to considering the
draft law on confiscation of cars for drunk driving. The journalist
applied for accreditation last week. “The press-service of the
House of Representatives refused point blank to receive our
application by fax, and directed us to agree upon the matter with the
director, Mr Lis. At first he also pointed at the fact that we didn’t
have the yearly accreditation and explained that the president’s
security service might not let us in. But finally he allowed that the
press-service received our application. And today he informed that
the journalists were not allowed to attend the event,” says Zmitser
Lukashuk.
The
Euroradio tried to get accredited at the House of
Representatives for the last two years, but unsuccessfully. The
problem is that the Euroradio gets accreditation each year
at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the accreditation expires on
30 November. Meanwhile, accreditation at the House of Representatives
must be applied for at least two months before the end of the year.
“We are denied accreditation at the House of Representatives on the grounds that the correspondent point’s accreditation is about to expire, and nobody knows if it will be extended. And when the MFA extends the accreditation, we phone to the Parliament, but they say – it’s too late, you should have applied earlier. This was the case last year, and the year before,” say in the Minsk correspondent point.
The European Radio for Belarus was started in 2005 and started to broadcast in 2006. The correspondent point has worked in Belarus since 2009.
