Yarmoshyna to Ban Bloggers and Regional Media from the Parliamentary Elections Press Center

Sep­tem­ber 24, chair of the Cen­tral Elec­tion Com­mis­sion Lidia Yarmoshy­na spoke at the CEC meet­ing about the jour­nal­ists to be allowed to work in the elec­tions’ press cen­ter, which is tra­di­tion­al­ly cre­at­ed dur­ing the par­lia­men­tary and pres­i­den­tial elec­tions.

«I see no issues with the jour­nal­ists who work for for­eign media. They are accred­it­ed by the Min­istry of For­eign Affairs. But what do we do with our jour­nal­ists? I pro­pose to give access only to the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the cen­tral media. After all, if we let the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of local news­pa­pers to come in, we will not be able to fit every­body in.

There are blog­gers, too. Each one of them con­sid­ers them­selves as media. I have recent­ly vis­it­ed Tut.by. por­tal.  I want­ed to read an arti­cle about celebri­ties and their pets. And who do you think these celebri­ties were? All blog­gers!»

Mem­bers of the Cen­tral Elec­tion Com­mis­sion have unan­i­mous­ly sup­port­ed the pro­pos­al to give access to the Palace of the Repub­lic, the tra­di­tion­al venue of the elec­tion press cen­ter, only to rep­re­sen­ta­tives of cen­tral Belaru­sian mass media.

CEC Rul­ing (in Russ­ian)