Minsk City Court Dismissed Journalist’s Complaint against Foreign Affairs Ministry
The Minsk city court dismissed the complaint filed by Viktar Parfionenka who has tried for years to get accredited as a journalist of Radio Racyja, but the MFA denies accreditation.
Photo by obozrevatel.com
Viktar Parfionenka seven times has applied for accreditation as a journalist of the Belarusian Radio Racyja, broadcasting from Poland for Belarusian audience; last time he applied on May 23 and got refusal with reference to the Law on Mass Media and the Ruling on the procedure of accreditation of journalists of foreign mass media in Belarus. The journalist filed the complaint to the Lenin district court of Minsk (this is the district where the MFA is located). The court (judge Iryna Brolishs) dismissed the complaint without consideration. The journalist appealed to the Minsk city court, but the appeal was dismissed, too.
The journalist drew parallel with the case of Maryna Koktysh whose right to accreditation and Belarus’s obligation to issue the accreditation has been reaffirmed by the decision of the UN HRC.
Unfortunately, neither Parfionenka’s claims nor the precedent of Maryna Koktysh influenced the decision of the judges’ panel of the Minsk city court.
Now the journalist plans to appeal to the Supreme Court and to the UN HRC.
“I’ve received refusals from the MFA seven times. The decision on accreditation is taken by a special commission whose actions are regulated by the special Ruling. I filed complaints to the Ministry itself several times and to the Government of Belarus, stating that I am being deprived of the right to profession, I am not allowed to exercise my constitutional rights. In both the places, as well as in the courts, my complaints are simply dismissed without consideration. Now I’m going to [fight for] implementation of my right further – in the Supreme Court and in the UN HRC,” said Viktar Parfionenka.