Kommersant: Belarusian authorities to reformat Russian media

The regime of Lukashenka is removing all uncontrollable Russian TV channels.

TNT channel has been removed from cable TV. It remains available only via more expensive digital TV services. By this measure the authorities, on the one hand, take revenge on the TV channels that afford criticism of Alyaksandr Lukashenka, but on the other hand, they also reduce Russia’s information presence in Belarus, Kommersant, a Russian daily, runs.

A decision to change the TNT broadcasting was formally taken by Minsk Television Information Networks company. In accordance with its ruling, TNT channel was moved to digital TV package to 258MHz starting June 1. Belarusian TV providers explain this step with the “changes in broadcasting policy in order to promote digital TV services”. However, taking into account the sharp deterioration of social and economic situation in Belarus, watching TNT in a far more expensive digital package will not be available for every Belarusian.

The Belarusian authorities traditionally turn their special attention to Russian media. In 2007, TV channel “24 dok” was turned off. It received the black spot after showing a film “An Ordinary President” by Belarusian director Yury Khashchavatski about Alyaksandr Lukashenka. In 2009, broadcasting of five Russian channels – Channel One Russia Worldwide, RTR Planeta, NTV Mir, REN TV, TV Center International – was stopped. After that, analysts began to say that the regime just removes uncontrollable Russian TV channels from the information area of Belarus. Russian diplomats expressed the same point of view in private conversations.

The repressive measures by official Minsk do not affect only TV channels: all products of Komemrsant Publishing House and Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper were excluded from Belarusian subscription catalogues. Returning to TNT, one can remind harsh jokes about Alyaksandr Lukashenka in Comedy Club: the show host Pavel Volya depicted Lukashenka as a “Belarusian shepherd-dog eating potatoes and demanding gas when it barks”.

As Khashchavatski told Kommersant, a decision regarding TNT stands in full accordance with the logic of the Belarusian authorities. “In Belarus, journalists are always guilty if the objective reality they show differs from Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s worldview,” he said. In his opinion, for the last 17 years, the Belarusian ruler has been living in his own invented world, where life is good and happy thanks to him. When anything in the real world does not comply with his invented world, he tries to eliminate it.