The Belarusian Telegraph Agency or BelTA (, , БелТА) is the state-owned national
news agency
A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency ma ...
of the
Republic of Belarus
A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a state in which political power rests with the public (people), typically through their representatives—in contrast to a monarchy. Although a ...
. It operates in
Russian
Russian(s) may refer to:
*Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*A citizen of Russia
*Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages
*''The Russians'', a b ...
,
Belarusian,
English,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
,
Spanish,
Polish and
Chinese languages. Since 2018, the director of BELTA is Irina Akulovich.
History
The agency was founded on December 23, 1918. During the Soviet times BelTA cooperated with the
Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union
The Russian News Agency TASS, or simply TASS, is a Russian state-owned news agency founded in 1904. It is the largest Russian news agency and one of the largest news agencies worldwide.
TASS is registered as a Federal State Unitary Enterpri ...
(TASS), although it was legally independent of it.
After the
USSR ceased to exist in 1991, BelTA has been the national news agency of Belarus. It transmits over a hundred daily reports, and provides information to other news agencies of
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional organization, regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an ar ...
members about the activities of Belarusian officials and organizations in and out of the country.
BelTA has offices in all
regions of Belarus
At the top level of administration, Belarus is divided into six regions and one capital city. The six regions are oblasts (also known as ''voblastsi''), while the city of Minsk has a special status as the capital of Belarus. Minsk also serves a ...
, as well as abroad. The main office is in
Minsk
Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...
.
Criticism
Some observers called BelTA a
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...
outlet.
The BelTA Director-General
Dzmitry Zhuk was banned from entering the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
between 2011 and 2016 as part of the EU's
sanctions against Belarus following what the EU describes as a crackdown of opposition protests after the
2010 presidential election. According to the
EU Council's decision concerning restrictive measures against Belarus following the 2010 election, Dzmitry Zhuk is responsible for ''"relaying state propaganda in the media, which has supported and justified the repression of the democratic opposition and of civil society on December 19, 2010 using falsified information."''
The BelTA Director-General Irina Akulovich came under EU and Swiss sanctions in summer 2024.
See also
*
Propaganda in Belarus
*
Media of Belarus
The mass media in Belarus consists of Television, TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, Film industry, cinema, and Internet-based websites/portals. The media is monopolized by the government, which owns all TV channels, most of the radio and print ...
*
Eastern Bloc media and propaganda
References
External links
BelTA: About Our Company
Eastern Bloc mass media
Organizations established in 1918
News agencies based in Belarus
Mass media in Minsk
Propaganda in Belarus
1922 establishments in Belarus
Belarusian news websites
{{Belarus-media-stub