Belarusian MFA Rejects Accreditation Refusal to Journalist of Gazeta Wyborcza

Source: www.baj.ru

˜Waclaw Radziwinovicz, a journalist from the Polish weekly Gazeta Wyborcza, has not been refused accreditation’, stated Victoria Lahouskaja (the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). ˜This issue has not even been considered yet because a meeting of the corresponding commission has not taken place. Mr. Radziwinovicz has not received any official reply.’

Nevertheless, information that Waclaw Radziwinovicz had been refused accreditation in Belarus appeared in web sites of a number of Belarusian editions. The reporter of Gazeta Wyborcza Andrei Pachobut explained the problem to BAJ: ˜At the beginning of August the head of the department of foreign affairs of Gazeta Wyborcza Bartosz Wiendliarczyk received a phone call from the Belarusian Embassy in Poland and was told that Waclaw Radziwinovich would not get accreditation because he was a ˜biased journalist’. After the information had been published in mass media officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affaires have been trying to refute it,’ said Mr. Pachobut. ˜Waclaw Radziwinovicz is a professional journalist who is well aware of the political and civil life of Belarus and is impartial in his coverage of events. The Belarusian authorities seem to dislike it. It looks like they are simply stalling for time.’

Let us remind that on 19 February 2006 (not long before the presidential election) Waclaw Radziwinovicz was not allowed to enter Belarus despite the fact that he had an entrance visa. In July 2005 he and a colleague of his were detained not far from Hrodna on their way to the trial of the Union of Poles' activists in Lida.