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Zhanna Litvina reelected chair of Belarusian Association of Journalists

Zhanna Litvina was reelected chair of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) at the organization’s 7th convention held in Minsk on Friday.

Seventy-eight of the 81 delegates present at the meeting voted to elect Ms. Litvina for another term, with no other candidates running.

Access to information is one of the main problems that journalists in Belarus face, Ms. Litvina said, pointing to the accreditation requirement as a method of restricting access to information.

She also noted that the government holds a monopoly on the distribution of newspapers. According to her, as many as 13 non-state publications are denied distribution contracts with Belposhta, Belarus' state postal services monopolist, and Belsayuzdruk, a state monopolist that runs a network of newsstands and stores across Belarus.

“Unfortunately, there are no hopes for reform in the media sector,” she concluded.

Founded in 1995, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) mainly unites workers of non-state media outlets. It has 1,157 members at present.

The BAJ has been an associate member of the International Federation of Journalists since 1997.

Workers of state media outlets as a rule join the government-favored Belarusian Union of Journalists, which is chaired by Anatol Lemyashonak, editor in chief of the government-controlled newspaper Respublika. //BelaPAN