28 May 2024, 13:13

Lukashenko: We fight for sovereignty, national dignity

MOGILEV, 28 May (BelTA) - There will be no calm on the information front; there is a struggle going on there, and the price of this is Belarus' sovereignty and national dignity, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at the Belarus Media Forum in Mogilev on 28 May, BelTA has learned.

The initiative to hold such a large-scale event for the country’s entire information pool - journalists, experts, communication specialists, government officials – comes at a very timely moment, the president emphasized.

He called it symbolic to hold the forum in the days of victorious May. The country has recently celebrated Victory Day, with the most important date in Belarusian history - the 80th anniversary of Belarus' liberation from Nazi invaders - approaching.

“The heroic history of the Soviet people is the greatest treasure. It is our main teacher,” Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized. In his words, during the years of the Great Patriotic War, the years of occupation of Belarus there was a fierce battle for the future - not only at the front, but also on the pages of printed publications, on the radio waves. The press in the occupied territories published poems and prose by collaborators who swore an oath to Hitler. They told about the “beautiful future” of Belarusians under the rule of “great Germany” with orientation on the “new Europe”, spread myths about atrocities of partisans, Bolsheviks and others, promised some “freedoms”.

“We know the price of these ‘freedoms’ and the new ‘European future’ – this is every third resident of Belarus killed in that war. It is maybe even every second one, given the ongoing investigation of the General Prosecutor's Office on genocide,” the president said.

According to him, nothing has changed in the rhetoric of the West-supervised sources of information - social networks, Telegram channels, chat rooms of all kinds - since then. “The narratives are the same. The targets are new. Back then, they discredited the image of the Soviet Union. Today they are wiping their feet on Belarus and Russia, other states,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “Here and there they target the presidents, their loved ones, law enforcers, civil servants and public figures. People, who have taken an active public stance.”

Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that war correspondents should be remembered more during the celebration of the Great Victory and Independence Day. “They also contributed to the destruction of the enemy. They destroyed the enemy with their word, which gave strength to the Red Army soldiers and encouraged them to fight for the Motherland, for what we have today. They won,” the Belarusian leader said.

“We also have a lot of victories on the information front today. We know what we are fighting for. For the sovereignty of Belarus, our national dignity, the future of our children,” the head of state said.

The president thanked all representatives of the media community for their work, high professionalism, integrity, patriotism and, most importantly, courage. “Do not be afraid of anyone. This is your homeland. Otherwise, you will not differ from the self-exiled opposition that are afraid of losing their jobs there, that wait for more money to continue fighting against our country. Today they do not get money even for their media, only for individual ones,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “Everything that is done against us is controlled by special services. Of course, those are not Polish or Lithuanian services, but those of the United States who are orchestrating everything there. They give money for weapons, for armed struggle, for seizure of at least a piece of Belarus. The United States, not even Europe, needs this in the first place.”

“There will be no calm, no quiet weather on the information front,” the head of state warned. “We have to grow professionally to be able to resist on this front. We have no other way out. This war has already come to us. The most important thing is to keep it from turning into a hot one.”