ГА «Беларуская асацыяцыя журналістаў»

OPEN LETTER of Belarusian Association of Journalists

on the score of the planned EFJ Annual Meeting in Moscow

Basing on the principles of Ethic Codes of IFJ and BAJ as well as being guided by the feeling of deep respect to the Ukrainian people that is forced to wage an undeclared war with separatists in their native land, the Board of Belarusian Association of Journalists has taken the unanimous decision to abstain from participation in the EFJ Annual Meeting in Moscow in November 2014 to show solidarity with the Ukrainian colleagues.  

We consider the EFJ conference to be the main event of the year in the field of European journalism. Therefore, on behalf of members of our nation-wide association we express disagreement with the decision to hold this conference in the capital of the state, whose authorities have purposefully fostered the ruining of ethical and professional standards of journalism.

We are witnessing the shameless substitution of the informative function of mass media by the manipulative and propagandist functions of mass media in Russia nowadays. The unprecedented wave of state propaganda that has dropped on the Russian audience and the audiences of all the countries that have access to the Russian media undermines the credibility of the information, disseminated in the printed and broadcast media in general. The situation is especially grave in the countries that border on the Russian Federation, including Belarus. It is obvious that the Russian governmental authorities are fostering this shameful process by means of presenting official awards to the most active participants of the unleashed campaign on ruining the basic principles of objective journalism.

Therefore, we consider to be unconvincing the arguments of the part of our European colleagues, who believe that due to holding the EFJ Annual Meeting in Moscow at this hard period of time, it will be possible to manifest international support to the Russian journalistic community. In our opinion, it is highly probable that the Russian official authorities and ideologically corrupted mass media will make use of the EFJ Annual Meeting, in order to strengthen their propagandist positions. However, we respect the position of the EFJ members, who are going to take part in the EFJ Annual Meeting in Moscow in November 2014, aiming to defend the principles of freedom of speech and the standards of professional ethics, and we would like to wish them to achieve success on this way.

We grieve for the Russian colleagues, who have become victims of the undeclared war, and express our deep respect and solidarity with the part of the Russian journalistic community that keeps to the truth and the principles of objective coverage of events in the current extremely complicated working conditions. We are impressed with their courage. We are convinced that their professionalism and civic responsibility will help them to endure the hardships and restore trust in the printed word and the voice of the Russian media both in their country and abroad.

Adopted by the Board of Belarusian Association of Journalists 

September 16, 2014