Russia Bans a Ukrainian Journalist to Stay in Belarus

The cor­re­spon­dent of the inde­pen­dent Ukrain­ian TV chan­nel broad­cast­ing for the ter­ri­to­ry Don­bass Vital Sizou had arrived in Min­sk to report on the meet­ing of the Three-par­ty Con­tact Group on Don­bass that is tak­ing place today in Min­sk. Vital Sizou has been accred­it­ed by the Min­istry of For­eign Affairs of Belarus, and jour­nal­ists of the chan­nel have sev­er­al times vis­it­ed Min­sk.

Police broke into the hotel room of the cor­re­spon­dent at 2.45 am and force­ful­ly took him to the Cen­tral dis­trict police depart­ment. The alleged rea­son of the deten­tion was that Vital Sizou was on the Russ­ian lists of per­sons who are banned entry to Rus­sia.

The rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Hro­madske TV of Don­bass Ali­ax­ei Mat­su­ka informed that Vital Sizou was set free at around 7 am.

“I was told that the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion banned my entry to its ter­ri­to­ry until 2021. Belarus and Rus­sia are a union state, so the ban for entry cov­ers Belarus, too. They repeat­ed sev­er­al times that the ban on entry was Russ­ian ini­tia­tive, Belarus had noth­ing to do with it, so I was unable to find out the rea­son of the ban. I was rec­om­mend­ed to leave Belarus with­in 24 hours, which I had planned any­way. Thanks to the Ukrain­ian Embassy for quick response and help. I am fine,” said the cor­re­spon­dent after the release.

It should be remind­ed here that Belarus, accord­ing to Arti­cle 1 of the Con­sti­tu­tion, is a “uni­tary, demo­c­ra­t­ic, social state based on the rule of law” defend­ing “ter­ri­to­r­i­al integri­ty, its con­sti­tu­tion­al sys­tem, and safe­guard legal­i­ty and law and order”.

Upd. Name had been mis­tak­en, now cor­rect­ed, edi­tor is sor­ry.

Хто блакуе рашэнне Лукашэнкі і Парашэнкі аб стварэнні сумеснага тэлеканала?

«Ва Украіне з абодвух бакоў канфлікту — лавіны дэзінфармацыі. І ў працэсе прымірэння журналісты граюць не апошнюю ролю»