Andrzej Paczobut: Dictator is losing battle for bynet

Belarusian authorities are trying to take revenge for their losses on the Internet.

This is how a journalist of Polish Gazeta Wyborcza Andrzej Paczobut commented for the charter97.org web-site on Lukashenka’s demand to strengthen the blocking of independent web-sites.

“The operative analytical center is so far the most secretive special service in Belarus. We know very little about its activities. At the same time we know that the Internet is being very closely monitored and the OAC deals exactly with that. Let’s take the revolutions on social networks, for example”, - the journalist noted.

He believes that if Lukashenka has met the OAC employees, praised them and gave such instructions, then they will become more active.

“From the very beginning the ruler took radio and television under his control, later he virtually subordinated printed media to himself, and the Internet remains the only space, beyond the state control. Plans on the creation of a super powerful data portal have been announced, which will be visited by hundreds thousands Belarusians for official information. Now we see that nothing came out of it. The Soviet Belorussia, on the basis of which the portal was supposed to be created, does not belong to popular web-sites”, - Andrzej Paczobut added.

The journalist is convinced that this defeat on the Belarusian Internet causes the desire to tighten the screws.

“Charter’97 and Belarusian Partisan have been virtually pushed out of the country, but the Internet is such a sphere, where it is possible to make a fairly qualitative product, even if the editorial office is based out of Belarus. So far the authorities have not yet found a way to overcome the WWW. It gets on their nerves, and they are looking for ways to compensate for their unpopularity on the Internet by annihilating the competition. Everyone, who uses the Internet, realizes that the authorities follow and may react in some cases. There were many stories: for example, two of my criminal cases were on publications on the Internet. Lukashenka wanted for the bynet to look differently – like the printed media market, but so far he is unable to do that”, - Andrzej Paczobut is convinced.