BAJ initiates monitoring of pro-Russian and anti-Western bias in Belarusian state TV

The pri­ma­ry goal of this mon­i­tor­ing effort is to con­firm or refute the hypoth­e­sis that dur­ing the so-called 2025 pres­i­den­tial “elec­tion,” Belaru­sian state-run tele­vi­sion chan­nels are shap­ing their media nar­ra­tive under the influ­ence of the “Russ­ian World” ide­ol­o­gy and inte­gra­tionist, anti-West­ern pro­pa­gan­da.

Pho­to: BAJ

The mon­i­tor­ing is being con­duct­ed dur­ing the peri­od of the 2025 pres­i­den­tial “elec­tion.” How­ev­er, it is not the same type of elec­tion cam­paign mon­i­tor­ing that BAJ has car­ried out in the past. Giv­en the harsh sup­pres­sion of the oppo­si­tion in the coun­try and the absence of gen­uine choice of can­di­dates, there is no point in mea­sur­ing how much time and space dif­fer­ent media allo­cate to polit­i­cal forces.

What inter­ests BAJ is the pol­i­cy pur­sued by Belaru­sian state tele­vi­sion chan­nels dur­ing this peri­od and the extent of pro-Russ­ian and anti-West­ern pro­pa­gan­da present in their broad­casts dur­ing the “hot” phase of the elec­tion cam­paign.

A sim­i­lar study was con­duct­ed in Feb­ru­ary 2024 (focused then on the “elec­tions” for the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and local coun­cils), enabling a com­par­i­son of results and the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of trends in the broad­cast­ing of state TV chan­nels under review.

Mon­i­tor­ing Peri­od: Jan­u­ary 1–31, 2025.

Key focus areas:

• The share of TV con­tent pro­duced in Rus­sia or with Russ­ian involve­ment in the prime-time broad­casts of the chan­nels Belarus 1, ONT, and STV.
• The pres­ence of “Russ­ian World” nar­ra­tives, as well as inte­gra­tionist and anti-West­ern pro­pa­gan­da, in the news pro­grams of Belaru­sian state tele­vi­sion media (Belarus 1, ONT, STV).

Pre­vi­ous pro­pa­gan­da mon­i­tor­ing reports and avail­able here.