Mass events law: Freelancers may banned from covering protests, Belsat TV also target


The lower chamber of the Belarusian parliament has adopted changes to the law ‘On mass events’. Only two MPs, Alena Anisim and Hanna Kanapatskaya, voted against the amendments.

According to the bill, a journalist covering a mass event, must carry a clearly visible ID badge.

“When giving reasons for detaining journalists, the police often say that they fail to distinguish journalists from protesters. We believe it [badging] might be good practice so that the police could recognise journalists and not touch them. Two things are of importance to us. First, there should be safe-conduct for journalists, if they have such a badge. Second, there should not be accusations of violations if a journalist has no badge during an authorised protest,” Barys Haretski, Press secretary of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, told Belsat.

Notably, in accordance with the bill, only staff media employees, not freelance journalists, will be allowed to report from mass events.

During the preliminary discussions, the BAJ asked to include freelancers’ work in the bill, but the proposal was turned down, Haretski stressed.

The bill is expected to be considered to the upper chamber and signed by president Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

It is worth mentioning that the Belarusian authorities always have in sights Belsat TV contributors covering protests. As recently as yesterday, our colleague Katsyaryna Andreyeva was brutally detained when performing her professional duties – she was livestreaming the public protests against opening the restaurant Let’s Go and Eat in the close vicinity of the Stalin-era mass grave. She was taken to a police station and forced to strip down to underwear. In search of a recording device, a female employee inspected her. A protocol was drawn upon Andreyeva under Art. 22.9 of the Administrative Code (illegal production and distribution of media products, i.e.working without accreditation).

Because of the work in the ‘partisan’ conditions, Belsat employees are often on trial under the above article and work without accreditation. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry have repeatedly turned down our accreditation applications.

In 2017 alone, Belsat contributors paid to the state as much as $ 14,000 in fines. According to the BAJ, last year, 94% of fines for alleged illegal production of media materials fell on the journalists of Belsat.

The OSCE and Reporters Without Borders have recently condemned the persecution of Belarusian journalists.

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