The representatives of Belarusian propaganda media accredited to cover the Olympics in Paris

A num­ber of rep­re­sen­ta­tives from these pub­li­ca­tions, along with law enforce­ment offi­cials, par­tic­i­pat­ed in the ques­tion­ing of indi­vid­u­als who had been detained dur­ing peace­ful protests.

Foto: Denis Shi­tikoff / Shutterstock.com

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists was informed by the accred­i­ta­tion ser­vice of the Inter­na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee that the fol­low­ing media out­lets have been accred­it­ed to cov­er the Olympic Games in Paris through the Nation­al Olympic Com­mit­tee of Belarus:

BelTA state news agency, Sportiv­naya Panora­ma news­pa­per, Press­ball news­pa­per, the offi­cial web­site of the nation­al sports com­pa­ny SPORT5.BY, the press ser­vice of the Belaru­sian Gym­nas­tics Asso­ci­a­tion and SB. Belarus Today

Screen­shot of the IOC response

Despite the neu­tral sta­tus of Belaru­sian ath­letes at the Olympics and the ban on offi­cial par­tic­i­pa­tion of Belarus in the Games, accred­i­ta­tion of Belaru­sian media, as in pre­vi­ous years, was grant­ed by the Nation­al Olympic Com­mit­tee of Belarus.

As a result, two state-run pro­pa­gan­da pub­li­ca­tions have been iden­ti­fied – BelTA and SB.Belarus Today. Their employ­ees are includ­ed on the EU sanc­tions list for their role in pro­mot­ing Rus­si­a’s mil­i­tary actions in Ukraine.

Addi­tion­al­ly, some jour­nal­ists from the pres­i­den­tial news­pa­per SB. Belarus Today, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with law enforce­ment offi­cials, par­tic­i­pat­ed in the ques­tion­ing of indi­vid­u­als detained dur­ing peace­ful demon­stra­tions in Belarus. Images of inter­ro­ga­tions of detainees, includ­ing inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ists, were repeat­ed­ly pub­lished on the Inter­net by pro­pa­gan­dists.

It is worth not­ing that the SPORT5.BY web­site has been includ­ed in the list of accred­it­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives. The employ­ees of Belarus 5 TV chan­nel of the Nation­al State TV and Radio Com­pa­ny of Belarus (which is also under sanc­tions) present them­selves as rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the site.

The site’s affil­i­a­tion with Bel­tel­era­dio­com­pa­ny has been repeat­ed­ly con­firmed by its man­age­ment.

Screen­shot SB. Belarus Today

The State TV and Radio Com­pa­ny of Belarus is the lead­ing pro­pa­gan­da resource of the Belaru­sian author­i­ties. It sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly dis­sem­i­nates anti-Ukrain­ian pro­pa­gan­da and mis­in­for­ma­tion about inter­nal events in Belarus.

In recent years, the TV com­pa­ny has fre­quent­ly broad­cast inter­views with detainees, includ­ing inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ists, who have been record­ed under duress.

At the same time, 38 media rep­re­sen­ta­tives are cur­rent­ly impris­oned in Belarus on polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed charges. The EU, the USA, and numer­ous inter­na­tion­al human rights and jour­nal­is­tic orga­ni­za­tions, have called for their release.

Many jour­nal­ists are cur­rent­ly impris­oned under con­di­tions that are com­pa­ra­ble to tor­ture. These con­di­tions include a ban on com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the out­side world, a pro­hi­bi­tion on meet­ings with rel­a­tives, care pack­ages, and even meet­ings with a lawyer.