BAJ: Media situation in 2008 was "very difficult"

The situation with the freedom of the media in Belarus in 2008 was "very difficult", according to the lawyers of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ). Mikhail Pastukhov who runs the Center for Media Defense at the association could not recall any positive events in the media field in 2008. "The authorities continued to squeeze the non-state media from the infomation field by cancelling rental contracts and denying accesss to the state-owned national distribution networks. Early this year, security agency raided the offices and flats of the journalists who cooperate with the foreign media. A new media law was passed in Belarus. This will make the life of newspapers more difficult in the future", Mr Pastukhov noted.

At the same time, he was pleased that the Belarusian journalistic community was left alone by the colleagues abroad. "Numerous famous organizations sent their appeals to the parliament and the president, asking not to pass a new media law and to send it instead for scrutiny of international experts. Unfortunately, those appeals were ignored. It is also pleasant that our efforts to struggle for the media freedom were not left unnoticed. At the end of 2008, BAJ chairperson Zhanna Litvina received an award from the Ebert Foundation", Belapan quoted Pastukhov as saying.