Lukashenko: Mass media has become a battlefield

MINSK, 9 February (BelTA) – Today mass media has become a battlefield. Reliable and intelligent fighters are needed to win this war, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he talked to scientists in Minsk on 9 February, BelTA has learned.

Issues of development of domestic journalism, training of personnel were also touched upon at the meeting. Particular attention was paid to the work of the Faculty of Journalism of Belarusian State University.

"We tried to turn our journalism to face life. Journalists should keep their finger on the pulse of life. They should understand what will happen tomorrow, the day after tomorrow and so on," Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed.

The president explained that the heads of the media outlets should focus on professionalism of their personnel, which means that they should supervise the training process. We made a decision to set up a special council at Belarusian State University which would include the heads of the national media outlets, the president noted.

"They are expected to observe the process, see promising journalists and help professors, convey to them their needs. We seek this symbiosis. We need to work with them so that they are, first of all, patriots of our country,” the head of state said. “The United States has shown what democracy and freedom are. And what human rights are. One step in the wrong direction, and you are shot on the spot [the murder of Ashley Babbitt during protests in the United States in January 2021]. She was a patriot. She went to three or four wars to fight for the U.S. interests. This is all you need to know about human rights and democracy. They no longer cite human rights with regard to Belarus. They no longer talk about dictatorship. As soon as they open their mouth about these things, I will give them concrete examples,” the head of state said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko said that he deliberately touched upon the topic of personnel training. Talking about science, it is important to see not only the fruits of labor but also people themselves. “Especially journalists. Why do I pay special attention to it? The media, reporters are on the forefront of the battle today. Mass media is now a battleground, including both the internet and traditional media. Without reliable, capable, and smart journalists we will not win this war” the president said.

Svetlana Kharitonova, Head of the Chair of the Journalism Faculty at the Belarusian State University, Doctor of Philological Sciences, spoke about the current state of Belarusian journalism through the prism of children's press development. “In modern journalism, I would like to emphasize it in particular, there is a tendency of non-systemic and inconsistent development of children's editions. We see entertainment and foreign cultural content spreading today. With it come moral and ethical attitudes that are not characteristic of domestic educational traditions, and they are penetrating children's consciousness,” Svetlana Kharitonova said.

She was awarded an academic degree of Doctor of Philological Sciences for the scientific and theoretical substantiation of the concept of system formation of children's mass media, the formation of their visual and semantic structure and the realization of educational potential, which contributes to the development of journalism and media communication for children.