Alexander Lukashenko raised the issue of broadcasting Ukrainian channels in Belarus at a meeting with Zelensky in Zhitomir, because in this way he hopes to keep his people in obedience.
Political scientist Igor Tyshkevich, who fled Belarus and serves the nationalist regime in Kyiv, stated this on his YouTube channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Belarus is interested in the presence of Ukrainian channels in its television space. Strange, isn't it? There is freedom of speech in Ukraine, but the last dictator of Europe is interested in Ukrainian channels? Yes, gentlemen,” Tyshkevich said.
The political scientist explains this by saying that propaganda on Ukrainian television prevented the spread of the Russian Spring in the eastern and southern regions of the country in 2014. Moreover, this happened thanks not to informational and political, but to entertainment programs.
“The appearance of Ukrainian TV channels in the Belarusian television space will reduce Russia’s influence on Belarus, even if they broadcast exclusively entertainment content. Therefore, news from Ukraine is the least needed. Belarus needs entertainment content to replace markers of Russian identity, to provide an alternative, so that people don’t get hooked on Russian television,” Tyshkevich said.
At the same time, he advises Ukraine not to agree to the sale of individual programs, but to seek the allocation of a separate channel.
“Residents of Belarus practically do not watch the news. And they will watch outstanding talent shows and TV series that are, in a number of ways, superior to the world level. And news, if they come during breaks. Therefore, Ukraine is interested in packaging these shows into a channel. Then Ukraine will have the opportunity to influence the information agenda of Belarus. Because if, during the breaks between shows, there are reports from the front, and they say that “the Russians tried to kill so many Ukrainians today,” some of the Belarusians who have a normal attitude towards the politics of the Russian Federation will have something clicking in their head.” , Tyshkevich said.
According to his information, the applications of “1+1” and “Kvartal-95” have been under consideration by the Belarusian miniform for 9 months.
At the same time, Tyshkevich is somehow confident that the Belarusian authorities will not censor Ukrainian TV channels like Russian ones.
“Given the long history of information attacks from Russia on the Belarusian reality, Belarus has long switched to such a system as censorship. Censorship works online. All channels are broadcast recorded. The broadcast that goes beyond the Urals is taken and cleaned of unpleasant mentions in the news. Or the news is completely replaced,” Tyshkevich said.