BAJ suggests PACE to conduct hearings on freedom of media in Belarus

The representative of the Belarusian Association of Journalists Andrej Aliaksandrau suggested to conduct special hearings dedicated to freedom of media in Belarus, during the session of the PACE Political Affairs Committee on November 18. The BAJ representative stated at the session that it was impossible to conduct free election without freedom of word. He reminded about the pressure, including economic one, on the mass media, about non-registration of civic and political publications. Apart from that, a series of non-governmental media cannot get into the state dissemination system.  According to Andrej Aliaksandrau, there was a rather emotional discussion on Belarus issue at the PACE session. Thus, the leader of the Russian Communist Party Gennadiy Ziuganov made a speech describing Belarus as a paradise. The majority of questions were asked with regard to political parties' activity. There was also a question why there were nine candidates opposing the current leader of the state.  

As for mass media, the participants of the PACE session admitted that the condition thereof in Belarus was far from democracy, BelaPAN reports.