Scandinavian Journalists Bid for Freelancers’ Rights in Belarus

The peti­tion was signed by 40 jour­nal­ists, includ­ing Tomas Spence, the pres­i­dent of the Nor­we­gian Union of Jour­nal­ists.

The peti­tion demands to respect work­ers’ rights and to ensure equal rights in pro­fes­sion­al activ­i­ties for all. The term “mass medium’s jour­nal­ist” is incon­sis­tent with the Belaru­sian Con­sti­tu­tion which guar­an­tees free­dom of expres­sion; the notion dis­crim­i­nates those jour­nal­ists who want to work inde­pen­dent­ly on a free­lance basis. In some cas­es, the sit­u­a­tion is used to penal­ize Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists who con­tribute to for­eign mass media that fail to get accred­i­ta­tion in Belarus.

The par­tic­i­pants of the sem­i­nar launched a fundrais­ing cam­paign to help com­pen­sate over forty fines imposed on jour­nal­ists for “ille­gal pro­duc­tion of mass media prod­ucts”.

Recidi­vist from Jour­nal­ism (inter­view from Aba­jour, abridged)

Accred­i­ta­tion of For­eign Jour­nal­ists in the OSCE region (OSCE mate­ri­als)

Arti­cle 22.9 of the Code of Admin­is­tra­tive Vio­la­tions (Issues)