Homel officials banned from communicating with independent journalists

Ideologists of Chyhunachny district of of Homel have developed a special instruction.

The instruction actually prohibits heads of government agencies and enterprises to contact with nongovernmental journalists. The document contains a requirement to inform the ideologists if the journalists of TV channel “Belsat”, or representatives of the Belarusian Association of Journalists attempt to take an interview.

The freelance journalist Kanstantsin Zhukouski considers that this document has signs of violations of the law.

“This prohibition will give nothing. Officials already are afraid of us. Those officials and people who give us interviews, will not be afraid of this paper. This harms Belarus, both on national level and on the international scene. This document discredits the Republic of Belarus, as this piece of paper simply tramples the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, the right to gather and disseminate information. No need to be a journalist, you can just be a person who is gathering information. A person has the right to this,” – Zhukouski said to Radio Racyja.