News item about Lukashenka’s censorship censored (Video)
- 22.11.2010, 9:07
“Vesti nedeli” programme at RTR channel (Russia) criticized the process of election campaign in Belarus.
This news item was not seen by our people in our country again. We offer the text and the video of the item:
“This week in Belarus the Central Election Commission has registered 10 candidates for presidency, including Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The election is scheduled for December 19. What kind of election campaign it is?
All news broadcasts at Belarusian TV are invariably starting with Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The president lambasts his negligent subordinates for their tardiness in building the Belarusian Park of modern technologies.
“I am asking why the Park has not been built in five years?! What a competition? Announce a competition, but it must be ready by January 1, 2014,” President Alyaksandr Lukashenka demands.
Why should not he be radiating confidence and not looking for a new presidential term? Next goes a solemn ceremony of handing in certificates of presidential candidates. Lukashenka didn’t attend it. But an exotic candidate of the Belarusian Popular Front arrived.
Notably, the Belarusian Popular Front (BNF) with a nationalistic tendency, had not been allowed to reach such pre-election heights ever. The leader of the BNF is surprised as well, it happens for the first time since 1996. Why it is so? Here are little details of the present election campaign.
“If there are no candidates at TV screen, on the radio, there is almost no democratic choice. The election could be considered undemocratic today already,” Yaraslau Ramanchuk, a presidential candidate, a deputy chairman of the United Civil Party is convinced.
“I have fallen victim to censorship myself. Items with my participation were cut, even comments. It is simply unacceptable. Thanks to Russian TV channels for covering the progress of the Belarusian campaign,” Andrei Sannikov, a candidate for presidency in Belarus, a coordinator of “European Belarus” civil campaign, said.
Almost all candidates complain about censorship. One of the main topics is how unpleasant reports are cut by local authorities from Russian TV on the territory of Belarus, thus protecting inmost purity?
“There is no freedom of expression in Belarus. Over the years of Lukashenka’s rule it was destroyed. And the situation with our website confirms that. The founder of the website Aleh Byabenin (Bebenin) was murdered. We are persecuted constantly, two criminal cases have been initiated, our offices are searched, office equipment was seized, I was beaten, and no one was punished for that. While Lukashenka rules, the situation with the freedom of expression would not change. He fears to lose his power greatly. He understands that he has no support of the nation,” said Natalya Radzina, an editor of Charter-97 website.