“Nezavisimaya gazeta”: Press answer of Naryshkin to the Belarusian ruler

• 12.10.2010, 9:47

Tomorrow Belarusian journalists will arrive in Moscow. They will discuss the issues of the two countries interrelations with the Head of RF Presidential Administration Sergei Naryshkin.

As it was explained to “Nezavisimaya gazeta” in Belarusian Association of Journalists, representatives of nongovernmental publications as well as those of the state ones are invited to Moscow.

Long ago, already in the first term of Lukashenka’s rule, thanks to him, Belarusian journalism was divided into “honest” and “dishonest”.

Journalists of the first group as well as the other ones have their own trade union. Working conditions of “honest” and “dishonest” are completely different. The first ones are invited to all events, the state annually stipulates in the budget the financing of the newspapers in which they work.

“Dishonest” journalists, whose number decreases with every coming year, are not invited to official events with participation of governmental officials and, more over, of the governor. The majority of newspapers which were issued on the territory of Belarus in former times found themselves pushed out of the market – at first, the only state postal operator refused their distribution, then it became difficult to find a printing establishment. Penalties and courts became an integral part of their activity. A part of them went to work in Internet, others – went out of existence at all.