MOSCOW, 9 November (BelTA) – Poland interferes with the ability of reporters to cover the migrant situation at the Belarusian-Polish border. Andrei Krivosheyev, a political observer of the Belarusian State Television and Radio Company (Belteleradiocompany), Chairman of the Board of the Belarusian Union of Journalists, cited some facts at a meeting of experts held on 9 November to discuss Union State programs, new challenges, and integration directions in Belarusian-Russian relations in 2021, BelTA has learned.
Andrei Krivosheyev reminded that a number of reporters, including Belarusian and Russian ones, are working at the border to cover the migration crisis. “The countries these miserable people flee from were not destroyed by Belarus and Russia. On the contrary, Russia put titanic efforts into normalizing the situation at least in Syria, in its responsibility area,” he said.
Andrei Krivosheyev went on saying: “What is Poland doing? It uses every means to interfere with the work of Polish, EU, American, Belarusian, and Russian reporters in its territory. Communications are jammed. Lasers and lighting equipment are directed towards our cameras in order to disrupt video recording.”
Andrei Krivosheyev reminded that a state of emergency had been declared in the Polish territory. “Any access of reporters to this 70km zone is forbidden. A number of colleagues have been detained, including from prominent European media empires,” he noted.
The expert meeting “Russian-Belarusian relations in 2021: Union State programs, new challenges, and integration directions” was organized by the A.A. Gromyko Association for Foreign Policy Studies. The event took place using videoconference technologies and premises of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Representatives of Belarusian and Russian government agencies, agencies of the Union State of Belarus and Russia, Belarusian and Russian experts took part in it. They discussed three areas: this year's results in Belarusian-Russian relations, top-priority tasks concerning the realization of Union State programs, and integration beyond the framework of Union State programs, in particular, what needs to be done within the next 2-3 years.
