Radio Racyja Journalist Denied Accreditation 11th Time

Pho­to: belsat.eu

Since 2009, Vik­tar Parfio­nen­ka has tried to receive accred­i­ta­tion, to be able to legal­ly coop­er­ate with the Belaru­sian Radio Racy­ja.  Every year he pre­pares a pack­age of doc­u­ments required for accred­i­ta­tion: a writ­ten request from the CEO of the for­eign radio, doc­u­ments of the media resource and its bureaus in Belarus, CV, pho­tos, as well as pass­port and jour­nal­ist card copies.

With doc­u­ments com­plete and valid, he still fails to receive the accred­i­ta­tion, for 10 years in a row.

Parfio­nen­ka shared the details of his recent attempt with the BAJ mon­i­tor­ing ser­vice:

Vik­tar Parfio­nen­ka

Due to numer­ous pre­vi­ous denials, I decid­ed that it made sense to ask for a tem­po­rary accred­i­ta­tion for the elec­tions to the so-called House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. I had no illu­sions, but still hoped that the author­ites would decide pos­i­tive­ly, in order to build a pos­i­tive image of the coun­try in the eyes of for­eign jour­nal­ists in the run up to the elec­tions.

I applied online, with all the nec­es­sary attach­ments.  I noticed that the Belaru­sian ver­sion of online reg­is­tra­tion was down, and sent a com­plaint, too.  Dur­ing a phone call, the MFA told me that my com­plaint was sat­is­fied, and they would email me their response to my appli­ca­tion for accred­i­ta­tion. No sen­sa­tion: I was denied again, under para­graph 15.4 of the Reg­u­la­tions on Accred­i­ta­tion of For­eign Jour­nal­ists.»

Para­graph 15.4 of the Reg­u­la­tions on Accred­i­ta­tion of For­eign Jour­nal­ists in the Repub­lic of Belarus:

«To refuse accred­i­ta­tion to jour­nal­ists of a for­eign out­let for 6 months after known facts of this out­let using the ser­vices of unac­cred­it­ed jour­nal­ists and (or) oth­er per­sons with­out accred­i­ta­tion.»

In ear­ly 2019, Vik­tar Parfio­nen­ka applied for accred­i­ta­tion for the tenth time. How­ev­er, the MFA’s Com­mis­sion on Accred­i­ta­tion of For­eign Media Jour­nal­ists did not give him accred­i­ta­tion even after he had sent addi­tion­al bio­graph­i­cal infor­ma­tion on his jour­nal­ist activ­i­ties on their demand.  They sent the neg­a­tive response not direct­ly to the appli­cant, but to the cor­po­rate mail of The Belaru­sian Radio Racy­ja office.

Free­lance jour­nal­ists find them­selves in a sit­u­a­tion when, on the one hand, they are denied accred­i­ta­tion, and on the oth­er — they are per­se­cut­ed and fined for coop­er­a­tion with for­eign media with­out accred­i­ta­tion.

Thus, the total amount of fines against jour­nal­ists of Bel­sat TV reached $95,000.