Censorship of Russian TV Channels in Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

News editions of the TV channel Rossiya are broadcasted an hour later in Belarus these days. Previously Belarusians watched Russian news at 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Minsk time (simultaneously with people of Russia), and now they start at 2 p.m., 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., which is one hour later than in Russia. (There is a one-hour lag between Russia and Belarus). A worker of one of Russian TV channels in an interview to the Charter’97 press-center supposed that in this way the Belarusian authorities had left a possibility for them to censor Russian news if necessary.

As said by the Russian journalist, the necessity to watch the Russian news broadcasts preliminary was caused by the fact that a lot of criticism against Belarusian regime is heard on Russian TV channels recently. The source reminded that in the end of December in Belarus Vladimir Solovyov’s program “K barjeru” “disappeared” from the program of the NTV channel. The program was dedicated to Russian-Belarusian gas conflict.

Last year NTV news broadcasts were censored as well. Instead of an evening news program “Segodnya” a recorded day news edition was broadcasted because of a critical news item on the situation in Belarus.

As we have informed, Russian TV channels are “abridged” when broadcasted in Belarus. The state-run Belarusian TV and Radio company is in charge of their broadcasting for Belarus, and it forms the TV viewing grid of Russian channels in their discretion.