Andrei Bastunets: “…the Ministry of Information ruins all efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to patch up with the West”
The public access to ‘Charter’97’ Web-site has been blocked.
“It is the second attempt of official authorities to block access to one of the most popular Belarusian social and political Web-resources. And for the second time, we witness completely nontransparent actions of the Ministry of Information of Belarus,” noted Andrei Bastunets, Chairperson of Belarusian Association of Journalists.
“Like in the case with ‘Belarusian Partisan’, it looks like the reason for blocking access to this Web-resource was connected with the users’ comments. However, it is a shame to use the words ‘looks like’, when one of the fundamental human rights and freedoms, i.e. the freedom of expression is restricted,” he added.
“…the Ministry of Information ruins all efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to patch up with the West in general and Poland, in particular,” said Andrei Bastunets.
“In my personal opinion, the restriction of access to the ‘Belarusian Partisan’ and ‘Charter’97’ shows that Belarusian authorities are absolutely ready to apply censorship and practise it without hesitation regardless of reasons. Only that I don’t know what events are preceded by the actions this time,” concluded the Chairperson of Belarusian Association of Journalists.