Solidarity with Ukraine: Belarusian Association of Journalists abstains from EFJ conference in Moscow
The Belarusian Association of Journalists has taken the decision to abstain from participation in Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) in Moscow in November 2014 to show solidarity with the Ukrainian colleagues. It is highly probable that the Russian official authorities and ideologically corrupted mass media will make use of the EFJ Annual Meeting, in order to strengthen their propagandist positions, Belarusian journalists warn.
“We consider the EFJ conference to be the main event of the year in the field of European journalism. Therefore, on behalf of members of our nation-wide association we express disagreement with the decision to hold this conference in the capital of the state, whose authorities have purposefully fostered the ruining of ethical and professional standards of journalism,” they say in an open letter .
“We are witnessing the shameless substitution of the informative function of mass media by the manipulative and propagandist functions of mass media in Russia nowadays. The unprecedented wave of state propaganda that has dropped on the Russian audience and the audiences of all the countries that have access to the Russian media undermines the credibility of the information, disseminated in the printed and broadcast media in general. The situation is especially grave in the countries that border on the Russian Federation, including Belarus. It is obvious that the Russian governmental authorities are fostering this shameful process by means of presenting official awards to the most active participants of the unleashed campaign on ruining the basic principles of objective journalism,” the BAJ stresses.
“We grieve for the Russian colleagues, who have become victims of the undeclared war, and express our deep respect and solidarity with the part of the Russian journalistic community that keeps to the truth and the principles of objective coverage of events in the current extremely complicated working conditions. We are impressed with their courage. We are convinced that their professionalism and civic responsibility will help them to endure the hardships and restore trust in the printed word and the voice of the Russian media both in their country and abroad,” Belarusian journalists say..
Georgia, Hungary, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Ukraine and the Faroe Islands have also refused to participate in the conference.
