Deputy Foreign Minister Alena Kupchyna will attend the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Eastern Partnership member states (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine), and the Visegrad Group countries (Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic) in Krakow.
According to the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), it was Mrs Kupchyna who refused to register Belsat’s correspondent office in Minsk. Then the Ministry’s official referred to our contributors’ alleged law violations. Thus, it was the third time that Lukashenka’s regime had turned our application down. As Belsat journalists and contributors have to perform their professional duties without any accreditation they repeatedly draw fire from public officers.
Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy, Belsat’s Director, expressed hope that representatives of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs would grasp the opportunity and talk with Mrs Kupchyna about the possibility of registering our news office in Minsk and official accreditation of our journalists.
The remarkable fact is that Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey was expected to present our country at the meeting. But it is to be recalled that since 2011he has been on the list of persons taking responsibility for human rights abuse and repressions against opposition and civil society in Belarus. Those on the black list are subject to a travel ban and a freeze of their assets within the European Union.
Belsat
