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Visiting president of OSCE Parliamentary Assembly meets with independent journalists

Riccardo Migliori, president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, on Tuesday in Minsk met with Ales Lipay, director general of BelaPAN, and Zhanna Litvina, chairwoman of the Belarusian Association of Journalists.

The meeting focused on media freedom issues, with Mr. Lipay and Ms. Litvina informing Mr. Migliori about the traditional problems of the Belarusian non-state media, including difficult economic conditions, denial of access to information and the failure of national regulations to meet international standards.

Ms. Litvina told Mr. Migliori that the Belarusian Association of Journalists would continue to push for the liberalization of Belarus' electoral regulations.

"We have already drafted amendments to the Media Law that have to do with the status of a journalist," she said. "We would very much like to continue discussing them with OSCE experts so that the OSCE use its channels for the Belarusian House of Representatives to either pass or at least consider them."

Mr. Migliori said that the OSCE PA's ad hoc Working Group on Belarus would soon be revived. He welcomed the proposal of Ms. Litvina to hold a discussion on Belarus' Media Law and the need to amend it. //BelaPAN