Andrzej Poczobut: China won't give money for Lukashenka's propaganda

Attempts of the Belarusian ruler to get money from China for propaganda seem futile.

Andrzej Poczobut, a Hrodna-based correspondent for Gazeta Wyborcza, spoke to charter97.org about the Belarusian ruler's proposal to China to set up a media holding.

“Lukashenka's regime has faced problems with propaganda due to lack of money. The idea of uniting state-run newspapers doesn't work being crashed by ambitions of propaganda employees who got used to be editorial heads and occupy other high posts. The authorities want to bring them all into a collective farm, which means the number of positions and the volume of money will decrease,” the journalist noted.

He stressed that the media holding required money. China is the only country Lukashenka can appeal to in this situation.

“I haven't heard yet that China created successful Europe-oriented media. I think it is just Lukashenka's desire to get money to feed his propaganda sector. A media holding is a union of several media resources. If we speak about a normal country, there are people who set up, buy and invest money in the media. But Lukashenka is not interested in a normal media market with pluralism of views and independent media competing with each other. He wants the variant when the authorities have total control over media. China is the example for Lukashenka. But all attempts to get money from China seem futile,” Andrzej Poczobut thinks.

We remind that the Belarusian dictator proposed China to set up a media holding in Belarus.