Belarusian journalists didn’t receive accreditation for Prague summit

The Czech authorities withdrew accreditation of political emigrant and journalist Alyaksei Shydlouski and other Belarusian journalists for the Eastern Partnership summit.

Alyaksei Shydlouski received accreditation for the summit as a reporter for the Belarusian emigrant newspaper Minsk-Prague-Inform with the editor-in-chief Yauhen Sidoryk. The accreditation was confirmed by the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affaires. However, Shydlouski and Sidoryk received a letter from the press service saying the accreditation was annulled by the security service for reasons of safety. Raman Kavalchuk, also born in Belarus, received a similar letter.

“We think withdrawing accreditation of Belarusian journalists is groundless and biased. The security service had no grounds for this decision. I don’t know who gave orders to strike the Belarusians, but I have faced similar situations in Belarus for many times. Europe continues playing cynic games with the Belarusian regime and appeasing everything. Such games may have a sad end because the totalitarianism is contagious,” Alyaksei Shydlouski commented on the situation.