{"id":11316,"date":"2021-12-27T23:41:33","date_gmt":"2021-12-27T20:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/state-propaganda-polarizes-public\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"state-propaganda-polarizes-public","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11316\/","title":{"rendered":"State propaganda polarizes public"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <span>By Pa\u016dliuk Byko\u016dski<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n <b>Belarusian state propaganda has been conducting a campaign to divide public opinion and exploit differences to create discord. The campaign to defend the ruling regime and accuse the West of orchestrating Belarusian protests has intensified as the government continues its crackdown in retaliation for post-election protests. <\/b>\n<\/p>\n<p> <b> <\/b><\/p>\n<h2> <span>Combative rhetoric<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka accused Poland of irredentism in August 2020 to persuade Moscow to contribute security forces as he struggled to suppress street protests against his disputed re-election. Vladimir Putin said he would provide support if protests turned violent. Luka\u0161enka\u2019s law enforcement and security agencies managed to stem the tide with propaganda support from Moscow.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Now that the international community is concerned that Russia may attack Ukraine, Luka\u0161enka has joined forces with Russian propaganda. Whereas Moscow primarily targets Ukraine and the West, Luka\u0161enka mainly criticizes Warsaw. \u201cI do not want Rzeczpospolita od morza do morza here, as our neighbors say. What do they [Poland] want? They want [to annex] Belarus as a whole to Poland,\u201d he charged on December 15 during his meeting with officials in the Vitsiebsk region.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Later, he may use the accusations as a pretext to allow Russia to deploy forces and nuclear weapons to Belarus. Although no formal decisions have been made to that end, Belarusian state media have spun the story as if the matter already has been decided and that the Belarusian leader and Belarusians want Russia to site its bases in Belarus. State propaganda claims that a war is quite possible and that Belarus is ready to fight back.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>State media lack credibility<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t It is hard to say what Belarusian state propaganda seeks to achieve \u2013 either simply to defend the regime\u2019s policy, hoping that the rally-round-the-flag effect will help it shore up public support for Luka\u0161enka, or it tries to sell the public a future integration deal with Moscow that would strain Belarus\u2019 sovereignty.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Polls by Chatham House found that more than half of Belarusians did not trust government agencies throughout 2021. A higher proportion distrusted the state media. Data from various sources suggest that Luka\u0161enka\u2019s rating is roughly the same as confidence in the state media \u2013 within a range of 15 to 20 percent.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t On the other hand, many Belarusians do not have access to Belarus\u2019 outlawed free media, including tut.by, which used to reach out to half of the country\u2019s online audience, and the Komsomolskaya Pravda v Belarusi, the country\u2019s top selling newspaper in the past. Belarusian newspapers have been banished from printing plants, websites have been blocked, some media organizations have been declared extremist groups, and some websites have been labeled extremist material.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>No sign of dialogue<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Surveys show that state media audiences have not increased over the last few months, with a slight rise reported for television content (the government controls all television networks in the country).\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Some free media lost readers, according to some sources. Other sources report a rise of new media actors on Youtube. These are not traditional media but counterpropaganda products directed against the Luka\u0161enka regime.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The government\u2019s crackdown on the media has made the country more vulnerable to attacks on its information security and has created favorable conditions for the distribution of Russian content among Belarusian audiences. The Luka\u0161enka regime does not control the process, so it may soon have to battle away attacks from Russian media. There were clashes between Belarusian government-controlled and Russian government-controlled media in 2019 and early 2020.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>State propaganda\u2019s combative rhetoric does not<br \/>\nhelp it reach out to greater audiences in a bid to boost Luka\u0161enka\u2019s<br \/>\npopularity. It just polarizes the Belarusian public and makes the prospect of<br \/>\ndialog aimed at solving the political crisis even more remote.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Pa\u016dliuk Byko\u016dski Belarusian state propaganda has been conducting a campaign to divide public opinion and exploit differences to create discord. The campaign to defend the ruling regime and accuse the West of orchestrating Belarusian protests has intensified as the government continues its crackdown in retaliation for post-election protests. Combative rhetoric Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka accused Poland [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[22],"class_list":["post-11316","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","hentry","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>State propaganda polarizes public | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Pa\u016dliuk Byko\u016dski Belarusian state propaganda has been conducting a campaign to divide public opinion and exploit differences to create discord. 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