Comment of the Head of the Department of Information, the Press-Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Andrei Savinykh related to the ban on participation of Belarusian journalists in OSCE conference in Vilnius

The conference in Vilnius was promoted as an important event for strengthening the freedom of mass media, freedom of expression, ensuring rights and safety of the journalists.

The invitation to participate in this event was signed by the present chairman of the OSCE, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania and by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media.

One key moment should be pointed out here. All countries, without any exception, that host the headquarters of international organizations or fora under the auspices of these organizations, take the responsibility to ensure free access to their territory for the national delegations. Restrictions in this regard are not only inappropriate, but also constitute the violation of the intergovernmental agreements.

Thus the European Union has openly demonstrated its contempt for the international obligations it has freely undertaken.

A surprising indecision is also demonstrated by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović, who uses various excuses to evade assessment of the situation in place.

This reaffirms her political bias and discredits completely her role of an independent arbitrator that she is trying to assume.

All these actions are another manifestation of the “double standards”. Our European partners use a set of standard slogans to hide their desire to act as directive mentors, leaving for Belarus the role of resigned and obedient apprentice. They are sincerely surprised and seemingly irritated by the resolute readiness of Belarus to dialog exclusively on the equal grounds with consideration of the interests of all parties. They refuse to put their interests on a par with the interests of Belarus.

It seems that namely this factor is the main “irritant” in the relations of our State with the West. Having declared equality of the nations and the human rights, Western politicians in practice put their own interests and ambitions above everything else, including common sense.

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