Belarusian journalists didn’t receive accreditation for Prague summit

• 4.05.2009, 16:49

The Czech authorities withdrew accreditation of political emigrant and journalist Alyaksei Shydlouski and other Belarusian journalists for the Eastern Partnership summit.

Alyaksei Shydlouski received accreditation for the summit as a reporter for the Belarusian emigrant newspaper Minsk-Prague-Inform with the editor-in-chief Yauhen Sidoryk. The accreditation was confirmed by the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affaires. However, Shydlouski and Sidoryk received a letter from the press service saying the accreditation was annulled by the security service for reasons of safety. Raman Kavalchuk, also born in Belarus, received a similar letter.

“We think withdrawing accreditation of Belarusian journalists is groundless and biased. The security service had no grounds for this decision. I don’t know who gave orders to strike the Belarusians, but I have faced similar situations in Belarus for many times. Europe continues playing cynic games with the Belarusian regime and appeasing everything. Such games may have a sad end because the totalitarianism is contagious,” Alyaksei Shydlouski commented on the situation.