Belsat TV made another attempt to get a formal accreditation and filed all the necessary documents to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But in vain: the Ministry’s officers refused to register its correspondent office in Minsk referring to Belsat contributors’ alleged law violations.
It is the third time that Lukashenka’s regime has turned our application down. “Accrediting Belsat might have resulted in impoving deteriorated relations with the West, but the rejection has wrecked all the efforts that the Belarusian authorities made in this field,” Belsat TV director Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy said.
As Belsat journalists and contributors have to perform their professional duties without any accreditation they repeatedly draw fire from public officers. Since the beginning of the year 2012 the Belarusian Prosecutor’s office has issued at least nine written warnings to Belsat contributors which were given to Zmitser Kisel (Brest), Grazhyna Shalkevich, Aliaksandr Dzianisau, Viktar Parfionenka, Mikola Dziatchenya (Horadnia) Zmitser Krauchuk, Alina Radachynskaya, Aliaksandr Barazenka and Volha Chaychyts (Minsk). Mikhas Yanchuk, Belsat’s official representative, was prohibited from crossing the Belarusian border on March 15, 2012.
Despite these nuisances we are going to work harder and file another application to be accredited in Belarus.
