Ihar Lutski, a former executive director of state-run TV station CTV and newly-minted Minister of Information, revealed the strategy he is going to align with.
“In my view, the ministry’s strategy shall correct the steps taken by mass media in order to ensure informing about the state’s clear policy in the first place, and to shield the population from information that does harm to the state,” Lutski said.
Now, in the course of the high-profile political campaign, information posted on the Internet ‘has a very serious impact on what is happening in the country and what turn the country will take’, the top official believes.
“It is important to pick the wheat from the chaff and provide the people with accurate, clear, straightforward and truthful information about what is going on,” Lutski stressed.
On June 4, the Belarusian Cabinet of Ministers was reshuffled. President Alyaksandr Lukashenka appointed 46-year-old Raman Halouchanka Prime Minister; the Belarusian leader called him a ‘reliable man’. Previously, Lukashenka repeatedly said that he would form a new government even before the 2020 presidential election scheduled for August, 9. According to the Belarusian leader, it is ‘normal practice’.
This year’s election campaign is gaining momentum: lots of Belarusians are spending hours in queques to sign for the nomination of a person or persons who have revealed their presidential ambitions. Thousands of people throughout the country line up to put their signatures for ‘any on the list but for the incumbent president’. In addition to taking picketers and activists in custody, the authorities try to prevent journalists from performing their professional duties by detaining them and seizing their equipment.
