Accents

In all interviews, Eduard Palchys says that he hasn’t got used to being a media person after the release. The press service of BAJ asked several questions to the “ordinary man” – about intelligence investigations over Belarusian activists by FSB, depression in detention, Russian-language nationalism and mass media reach in prisons.

“Minsk is changing a lot, and there is a drastic difference between the capital and the province” this is how Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy formulated her fresh impressions from Belarus. It is the second time in the decade that Mrs Romaszewska visits Belarus: after she was deported in 2005, for ten years she had been denied a visa to Belarus. On May 31, the Press Club Belarus held a public meeting with Belsat director, after she made a trip to the north of the country and before another trip to southern regions. She told about nowadays Belsat, their expectations, and answered the questions of the public.

Belarusian human rights organizations welcome the continuation of the EU-Belarus human rights dialogue. On the eve of its next round, we call on the parties to keep the issues of human rights high on the agenda in building relationships between the European Union and Belarus and announce our common position on human rights in Belarus.

Kastus Zhukouski manages to do journalism, civil activism and defense of his own rights. Local law enforcement agencies take his name as a synonym to the word “opposition”. He is not going to reassure them, though.

For one year already, Sabrina Bobowski has been the head of the School of Journalism at the IBB center organizing dozens of events, meetings and educational trips for journalists. Press service of BAJ talked to Sabrina about how she works to develop journalism in Belarus and to change people’s mentality.

On February 26, 2006, the European Radio for Belarus went on air for the first time. BAJ asked the head of the radio Vital Zybliuk to tell about the useful experience, lessons learnt and hopes.

Last year, Aliaksandr Lukashenka was surprised to learn that the newspaper BDG.Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta was working online, although ten years before the paper version had to close down because of the pressure on printing houses, who subsequently refused to print the newspaper.

Last week, representatives of two journalistic unions – the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) and the Belarusian Union of Journalists (BUJ) discussed ethics of journalists in social networks.

Mapping Media Freedom correspondent Volha Siakhovich spoke to Andrei Bastunets, chairpersion of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, about the state of press freedom in Belarus.