Litvina: Keeping tragic information back is crime against society

Let us remind you that Attorney General Ryhor Vasilevich claimed that a number of online mass media had allowed “dancing on corpses” and said that their publications had an insulting and humiliating sense and contained various speculations and insinuations.

Litvina noted that Internet portals irritated the authorities most of all. Comments following information about the recent tragic events caused the harshest reaction. However, it is impossible to make mass media stick to the ethic norms by exercising pressure and persecution, thinks the BAJ chairperson.

Lіtvіna: "Speaking about the tendency of keeping information back, I should remind of the experience we received after the tragedy at Nyamiha. Our state TV channels and the radio had been silent for 10 or 12 hours back then. The authorities’ control over mass media does not allow them to bear the full responsibility. I think that they have to ask the higher officials for permission before presenting information, especially if it is about some tragic events. I am not afraid to say it, but it is a crime against the society and the people. I remember the night after Nyamiha very well. Hundreds of people rushed to hospitals in search of their children, they were deprived of any information about what had happened…”
In Litivina’s opinion, you cannot force mass media to be responsible and professional without respecting their freedom. She thinks that the fact that state mass media can do anything including distributing unethical and boorish statements is disturbing. On the other hand, the government persecutes independent mass media whose opinion differs from the authorities’ position.

However, the expert would not like to make any conclusion about the further possible repressions directed against independent mass media.

Litvina: “The information space is filled with various discrepancies. On the one hand, the state leader is pronouncing threats. On the other hand, the today’s issue of “SB” contains Alyaksandr Radzkou’s statemnt: insulting and accusing mass media for blaming the opposition for everything. I think that we need some time to look into it all and to watch the authorities’ further actions”.

By the way, the Attorney General has claimed that some authors of inadmissible publications will be interrogated in the framework of the criminal case. In Litvina’s opinion, the best way to protect a journalist in this situation is using only facts in their work. If journalists are guided by facts, it makes them protected.

 

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