Censorship in propagandist Hihin's talk show

The words that the state registration of the mass media is anachronism were cut from Vadzim Hihin's talk show.

Andrei Bastunts, a deputy head of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), wrote about it on the BAJ website.

“I had what people call staircase wit on the stairs, of course. I remembered that I said nothing about the Netherlands at the talk show Pozicia (Position) on February 10, 2013. The registration of printed media was found unconstitutional in 1892, while we are discussing the registration of Internet media in the 21st century.

But I watched the aired version of the talk show and calmed down. These words wouldn't necessarily have been left in the programme. For example, the following facts were cut:

– the statistical data on Ministry of Information's denials of registration for printed media for three years (105),

– a remark that the BAJ was prohibited from issuing press cards in Belarus, though journalists' unions do it all over the world (it was said to the opponents, who insisted that the Internet media should be registered also to give the rights of journalists to their employees),

– a remark that applying the laws on the mass media to news websites won't solve anything, because they are a very small part of the Internet and it's difficult to understand how these laws will affect, for example, social networking websites or foreign sites,” Bastunets said.