Lukashenko: If necessary, I will deal with foreign media within 24 hours

It is not inappropriate to declare foreign information agents foreign media broadcasting in Belarus, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on April 10 at a meeting with the largest state-owned media leaders and staff, Sovetskaya Belorussia newspaper reports.

Answering a proposal to introduce the concept of foreign information presence and foreign agents into the Belarusian legislation, as well as "marking" Internet portals financed from abroad, the president of Belarus noted that there should be no hurry. At the same time, in his opinion, the need for information immunity from all kinds of "dirt" from the outside is beyond doubt. "If we are talking about info-agents, we must, first of all, create single criteria for determining them. Speaking figuratively, think over common tags. But a question immediately arises: how will we implement this decision in practice? Will this not complicate our relations with Russia, whose media sometimes show God knows what about our country? But the tags will have to be put not selectively, but on everyone who comes under the appropriate criteria. We should not forget that our people are vaccinated against western foreign agents. But are they vaccinated against eastern ones?" Lukashenko asked himself.

At the same time, responding to a journalist’s comment that it should go first of all about network resources, Alexander Lukashenko called for looking at the problem more broadly. "Every generation must bear its burden. We are fortunate that we are one of the few post-Soviet countries that has not gone through wars and deprivations. But our generation must also take something not to be embarrassed in front of people. And we need to stand it! If the time comes and there will be such a need - I will deal with these foreign agents within 24 hours. Meanwhile, the main thing is to instill immunity from unfair information," Lukashenko said.

As EADaily reported earlier, on April 10, 2018, Alexander Lukashenko met with the largest state-owned media leaders and staff. During the event, the president of Belarus noted that in the modern world, where armed conflicts and information wars come to the forefront, "the mass media have been turned into weapons", and this weapon is "more powerful than nuclear". At the same time, Lukashenko stressed that today it is necessary to carry to the people what "mobilizes, unites, makes the country even more independent, calm, looking to the future". Therefore, according to the Belarusian leader, the new edition of the Mass Media Law, which caused a lot of critical reviews, is designed to protect people from the "flow of untested, false, destructive information."

Recall that, according to the new version of the Mass Media Law, it is prohibited to distribute foreign mass media products on the territory of the republic without the permission to it. Issuance of permission to distribute foreign media products will be carried out after examination of their compliance with the Belarus legislation in the republican public administration body in the field of mass information in order established by the Council of Ministers.