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Conference on Belarusian-Russian cooperation in media sphere begins in Minsk

A conference on the topic of “The Media Sphere of Russia and Belarus in the Conditions of Present-day Geopolitical Transformations” began in Minsk on Thursday, BelaPAN said.

“The media of the Union State should pool their efforts and work for the good of the two peoples,” Vasil Khrol, deputy state secretary of the Belarusian-Russian Union State, told reporters ahead of the conference.

Mr. Khrol expressed his discontent with the behavior of some media outlets, which he said act in accordance with orders from “those who want to destroy integration processes and economic cooperation between Belarus and Russia.”

Oleg Poptsov, president of the Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio who headed the Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Company between 1990 and 1996, said that six or seven months after Alyaksandr Lukashenka was elected president, the Belarusian leader asked him what should be done with the journalists who constantly criticized the president. “I said that he should make them love him and say that they are doing everything right. And then they would realize that he was a pillar of freedom of speech,” Mr. Paptsov said.

“Since the mid-1990s, the president has said that Belarus pursues a multi-vector foreign policy,” said Vadzim Hihin, editor in chief of Belaruskaya Dumka, a publication of Mr. Lukashenka’s Presidential Administration. “Europe has finally begun to hear us. The recent visit of [Lithuanian President] Dalia Grybauskaite is a response to last year’s Lithuania visit of the president of Belarus.”

In the media sphere, Belarus and Russia should abide by the principles of reciprocity and respect for national interests, Belarusian Information Minister Aleh Pralyaskowski, said in his opening address at the conference.

Alyaksey Husew, first deputy director of the Information and Analytical Center of the Belarusian president’s administration, said that during the two-day conference, participants would discuss the implementation of a 2007-10 action plan for the establishment of a common information area within the Union State in the media sphere.