The mass media in Belarus consists of TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, cinema, and Internet-based websites/portals.
The Law on Mass Media has been repeatedly amended and tightened, making it virtually impossible for independent journalists and publications to operate.
De jure, the constitution of Belarus guarantees the rights of citizens to freedom of speech, prohibits censorship and monopolization of mass media.
[1] De facto, any criticism of president Lukashenko and his government is considered a criminal offense, the country is in a state of ‘legal default’,[2] bureaucracy uses politicized court rulings to oppress independent media and any voices except ones that are completely loyal to the regime.
[3] No special laws require transparency in media ownership,[4] and there are no legal guarantees of public access to government records.
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.
[13] It allowed authorities to ban foreign media outlets from unfriendly countries,[14] 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.
[5][9][19] As of 2023, Belarus ranks 157th in the World Press Freedom Index,[13] almost no independent media outlets still work inside the country.
[9] 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.
[31] 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.
[29] 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.
[32] The country has a monopoly of terrestrial broadcasting infrastructure, and does not allow cable companies to carry channels without prior approval.
The Belarusian government maintains a monopoly of domestic broadcast media; in 2014 foreign ownership was restricted to a maximum of 20%.
[35] Five years later, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus Miklós Haraszti said: "Media pluralism is absent.
[41] 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.
[44][31] In Belarus, the subscription of the nationwide and regional state-run publications is compulsory for employees of any state institutions, such as schools, universities, offices, etc.
The list of its publications includes the Zvyazda daily (circulation of 20,000), LiM newspaper, Alesya, Polymya, Nyoman, Maladosts, Rodnaya Pryroda, and Vozhyk magazines.
[47][31] Among other state-controlled newspapers there are Holas Radzimy, Vo Slavu Rodiny, Zhodzinskiya Naviny, Vecherniy Brest, BelTA's 7 dnej (circulation of 40,000), etc.
[46] Radio 101.2 was a Minsk-based independent station which was closed by the government in 1996 and transferred to the Belarusian Republican Youth Union.
In the early 2000s, while the Russian mass media dominated in Belarus, it frequently invited Belarusian oppositioners and allowed criticism of Lukashenko.
[5] popular Telegram channels like NEXTA Live (see Roman Protasevich) or Belarus Golovnogo Mozga were declared extremists.
[citation needed] Belarus Union of Journalists was established in 1958 as a professional, independent organization of Belarusian mass-media workers.
However, nowadays the Union is pro-governmental, in 2021 it suspended its participation in the International Federation of Journalists and its cooperation with the executive structures of the IFJ.
[70][71] The Belarusian Association of Journalists, established in 1995, united professionals from independent media and strived to defend freedom of speech, freedom of information, promote the professional standards of journalism, conduct monitoring of Belarusian press, and offer legal support to all media workers.