Belarusian journalists and Lukashenka’s dictatorship: Belsat TV in VICE News report


In its new report, VICE News tells about Belarus and its independent journalists – including Belsat TV – who are standing against propaganda and repressions. 

In BLACKOUT series, VICE News takes viewers across the globe, from Pakistan to Belarus, to examine technology’s role in the ongoing fight for free expression.

“In October of last year, Alexander Lukashenko swept to his fifth term as the Belarusian president, marking 22 years in power. Despite the elections being marred by allegations of fraud, the EU in February lifted travel sanctions against Lukashenko’s government, as a reward for good behavior — the elections passed without a repeat of 2010’s violent crackdown against opposition parties. But critics argue that the EU is making a dangerous endorsement of an autocratic regime that still employs the use of internet surveillance, censorship, and intimidation to exert control over its people and press,” VICE News says.

In Minsk, VICE News met with Belarusian journalists working for the newspaper Nasha Niva, visited Belsat TV office and accompanied our reporters. They also arrived at the Belarusian town of Rahachou and talked to Dzyanis Dashkevich, the editor-in chief of an independent website, and experienced being under surveillance by secret services.

VICE News is a current affairs channel, producing daily documentary essays and video through its website and YouTube channel. It promotes itself on its coverage of ‘under-reported stories’. Vice News was created in December 2013 and is based in New York City, though it has bureaus worldwide.

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