Freelance photographer not allowed to shoot at polling station in Barysau
Valiantsina Ziankova was going to cover the process of voting at polling station No. 59 in Barysau district.
She came up to the chairman of the commission and showed her BelaPAN ID, but he demanded from her some additional "accreditation" and not allowed to shoot without it, Belarusian Association of Journalists reports.
According to the BAJ deputy chairman Andrei Bastunets, this is a violation of the electoral law by the Commission.
"If this is a Belarusian media, there should be no additional accreditation,” says the lawyer. “Ahead of the elections, the CEC released a "Sample scenario training for members of precinct election commissions", where there is an example, which coincides with the incident in Barysau. At trainings, commissions had to be explained that a representative of the Belarusian media should just show an ID and sign in the register. Obviously, The Barysau Commission failed to learn the instructions well."
