The mass media in Belarus consists of TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, cinema, and Internet-based websites/portals. The media is monopolized by the government, which owns all TV channels, most of the radio and print media. Broadcasting is mostly in Russian, and Russian media are widely present. After 2020, all independent media were pushed out of the country. The Law on Mass Media has been repeatedly amended and tightened, making it virtually impossible for independent journalists and publications to operate. European, Ukrainian and news websites were blocked in Belarus. The Constitution of Belarus guarantees freedom of speech, but this is contradicted in practice by repressive and restrictive laws. Arbitrary detention, arrests, and harassment of journalists are frequent in Belarus. Anti-extremism legislation targets independent journalism, including material considered unfavourable to the president. As of 2024, Belarus ranks 167th in the World Press Freedom Index. BBC describes the Belarusian media environment as one of the most repressive in Europe.
Legislative framework and regulatory authorities
Unlike other post-Soviet states after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Belarus preserved state control and ownership over most national media. De jure, the constitution of Belarus guarantees the rights of citizens to freedom of speech, prohibits censorship and monopolization of mass media. De facto, any criticism of president Lukashenko and his government is considered a criminal offense, the country is in a state of ‘legal default’, bureaucracy uses politicized court rulings to oppress independent media and any voices except ones that are completely loyal to the regime. No special laws require transparency in media ownership, and there are no legal guarantees of public access to government records.
Back in 2008 the government approved a Law on Mass Media that secured state control over media and made the Ministry of Information of Belarus (MIB) its main regulator.
Since 2009, all media outlets (including websites) must register to avoid being blocked. On 5 January 2015, the Law of the Republic of Belarus made all information published on the Internet be subject to the Criminal Code. Further amendments to the Mass Media Law adopted in June 2018 introduced tighter accreditation rules, allowed an extrajudicial shutting down online and social media, made website owners legally responsible for the content of their comments sections and obliged them to provide the technical possibility to identify the authors of these comments. Though unregistered web media were obliged to fulfill the obligations for the registered media, they were deprived of corresponding rights such as the right to journalist accreditation and a right to keep their sources in secret. For many years, strict accreditation rules and denials have been one of the authorities' tools to keep independent media out of public and official events, impose fines and ensure that only publications loyal to the government cover events.
2021 became the record year regarding law amendments aimed to control and repress the media market and its employees. Among the rest, MIB was allowed to shut down media outlets without court decision, news media were banned from live reporting on unauthorized mass gatherings, and results of opinion polls that weren't approved by the government were prohibited to publish. Any person or news organization was barred from opening a new media outlet within five years of authorities’ closing any of its other affiliated outlets.
A new set of restrictive amendments to the Law on Mass Media was adopted in 2023. It allowed authorities to ban foreign media outlets from unfriendly countries, specified the functioning of news aggregators and the legal status of their owners, expanded the list of grounds for cancelling a certificate of State registration of a mass media outlet and restricting access to an Internet resource.
Censorship and media freedom
Reporters Without Borders ranked Belarus 154th out of 178 countries in its 2010 Press Freedom Index.Press Freedom Index 2010 , Reporters Without Borders, 20 October 2010 In 2011, Belarus scored 92 on a scale from 10 (most free) to 99 (least free) in Freedom of the Press report. The score placed Belarus ninth from the bottom of the 196 countries included in the report."Country report: Belarus", Freedom of the Press 2011, Freedom House, 21 April 2011 The situation continued to deteriorate, in 2022 the country had only 8 points out of 100. On the scale of Internet freedom, Freedom House's 2022 report described Belarus as ‘not free’ country with only 25 points out of 100. The authorities dominate the information sphere, the ongoing crackdown on independent media goes on since the 2020 presidential election. As of 2023, Belarus ranks 157th in the World Press Freedom Index, almost no independent media outlets still work inside the country.
In 2021, the Belarusian Association of Journalists reported more than 60 cases of criminal prosecution of journalists and bloggers. BelaPAN, Nasha Niva and TUT.by, as well as 410 Telegram and 20 YouTube channels were declared ‘extremist’ in 2021. As of 2023, 33 journalists were in jail, including chief editor of Tut.by Marina Zolotova, chief editor of Nasha Niva Jahor Marcinovič, Belsat reporters Katerina Andreeva and Darya Chultsova, Ksenia Lutskina (Press Club Belarus), Denis Ivashin (Novy Chas), Andrzej Poczobut, Alexander Ivulin (Tribuna.com), Valeriya Kostyugova (Belarusian Yearbook), Irina Levshina (BelaPAN), Gennady Mozheyko (Komsomolskaya Pravda v Belarusi), Andrei Kuznechik (Radio Liberty), Serhiy Satsuk (Yezhednevnik), Oleg Gruzdilovich (Narodnaia Volia), Ihar Losik (Radio Free Europe, Belarus Golovnogo Mozga Telegram channel), Eduard Palchys (PALCHYS Telegram news channel), and many more.
In 2023, BBC called the Belarusian media environment one of the most repressive in Europe.
Media landscape
Belarus hosts state and privately owned media, however, the latter sector keeps decreasing due to the repressive media environment. In 2009 there were 1,314 media outlets in the country, 414 of them were state-owned and 900 privately owned.Elena Kononova, Belarus , EJC Media Landscapes, circa 2010 As of 1 September 2023, there were 921 printed publications including 371 newspapers and 561 magazines (400 state-run), 7 news agencies (2 state-run), 52 online media outlets (45 state-run), 99 radiostations (63 state-run), and 93 TV channels (41 state-run).
Most media outlets are Russian-language, since, according to rough estimates, more than 70% of Belarusians use the Russian language. Under Lukashenko, the state policy was to promote the Russian language, gradually the Belarusian language was pushed out of use. Thus it turned into the language of the opposition and independent publications.
The largest national mass media outlets are Belteleradio, the All-National TV, STV (Stolichnoye Televideniye), publishing houses Belarus Segodnya and Zvyazda, and the BelTA agency. State media are mostly commercially unprofitable and survive on subsidies and grants from the government, despite the fact that they operate under a favorable tax regime.
The country has a monopoly of terrestrial broadcasting infrastructure, and does not allow cable companies to carry channels without prior approval. State-owned postal and kiosk distribution systems and state-owned print facilities and advertising contracts are mostly off-limits for independent media. State-run media in Belarus praise President Alexander Lukashenko and vilify the opposition. Self-censorship is pervasive in private outlets. The Belarusian government maintains a monopoly of domestic broadcast media; in 2014 foreign ownership was restricted to a maximum of 20%. Back in 2010, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović "said [that] pluralism was non-existing in the broadcasting sector, restricted in the print media and vulnerable on the Internet". Five years later, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus Miklós Haraszti said: "Media pluralism is absent. Belarus is the only country in Europe with no privately owned nationwide broadcasting outlets".
In October 2020, the accreditations of all foreign journalists in Belarus were canceled by the authorities. Among those who reapplied successfully, the overwhelming majority are Russian journalists employed by state-run media.
Outlets
Agencies
By 2015, Belarus hosted nine news agencies, two state-owned and seven private. The most important were BelTA (Belarus' largest news agency, and the official state news agency for nearly 90 years), BelaPAN (a private news agency founded in 1991), and (part of Interfax, that operated in Belarus since 1994 and catered primarily to national and local media)."Mass media in Belarus", Belarus.by, the Official Website of the Republic of Belarus, January 2015
As of 2023, only 7 agencies remained. Interfax-West ceased operations in Belarus on 1 January 2022, due to amendments made to the Law on Mass Media of the Republic of Belarus in May 2021. BelaPAN was declared extremist by the KGB, its editor-in-chief Irina Levshina and deputy director Andrey Aleksandrov were sentenced to 4 and 14 years in prison, respectively.
Print media
As of September 2023, 921 printed publications were registered in Belarus. The majority of them are printed entirely in Russian, Russian newspapers Komsomolskaya Pravda (circulation of 203,000) and Argumenty i Fakty (120,000) are one of the most popular in Belarus.
The state-run Belarus Segodnya Publishing House is a media holding that publishes the five largest circulation newspapers: Belarus Segodnya (circulation of 400,000), Respublika (published since 1991), Selskaya Gazeta (1921), Znamya Yunosti (1938), and Narodnaya Gazeta (1990).
The state-run Zvyazda Publishing House was founded in 2012. The list of its publications includes the Zvyazda daily (circulation of 20,000), LiM newspaper, Alesya, Polymya, Nyoman, Maladosts, Rodnaya Pryroda, and Vozhyk magazines.
Among other state-controlled newspapers there are Holas Radzimy, Vo Slavu Rodiny, Zhodzinskiya Naviny, Vecherniy Brest, Vechernii Minsk, BelTA's 7 dnej (circulation of 40,000), etc.
Many popular independent publications were closed by the authorities, including several that were truly independent: Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta, Belorusy i rynok, Hazeta Slonimskaya, Narodnaja Volya. Though even in 2018, before the infamous 2020 elections and subsequent crackdown of all independent media, the circulation of these newspapers hardly reached 8000. Between 2020 and 2023, numerous newspapers were declared extremist: Novy Chas, Rehianalnaya Gazeta ("Regional Newspaper"), Nasha Niva, Intex-Press.
Publishing houses
State-run publishers are: Belarus Segodnya Publishing House (operates newspapers, Alfa Radio, etc.), Vysheysha shkola (academic books), Mastatskaya Litaratura, Narodnaya Asveta, Belkartografia, Aversev (academic books), the Belsoyuzpechat (national distributor), Four Quarters (books on the arts, history and geography), Belorusskaya Nauka (science), Tekhnologiya, Belovagroup, etc.
Independent publishers include Janushkevich, Knigazbor, Goliaths, Medisont, Limarius, Knihauka. All of them experience pressure from the authorities, obstruction of their activities, employees of some have been arrested.
Radio
In 2009, 158 radio stations were registered in the country, 137 state-owned and 21 private. By 2023, only 99 remained, 63 of them state-run.
Belteleradio, the state TV and radio service, operates five radio stations: Radius-FM, First National Channel, Stolitsa, and Radio Belarus for foreign audiences. Alfa Radio is operated by the state Belarus Segodnya Publishing House.