MINSK, 23 December (BelTA) – BelTA is turning 106 on 23 December.
The agency's history began on 23 December 1918, when a Belarusian branch of the Russian Telegraph Agency under the All-Russia Central Executive Committee opened in Minsk. Over the following years, it was renamed several times until it received its today’s name - the Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTA) on 7 March 1931.
Until 1991, BelTA was run from Moscow. TASS leased teletypes, BelTA received TASS newsfeed and sent back stories about the republic, which also landed on the desks of the USSR leadership.
Today, BelTA and TASS are equal partners. BelTA has about 30 partnership agreements with leading global news agencies, including the largest agencies of the CIS countries, China’s Xinhua and China Daily, Türkiye’s Anadolu Agency, Latin American Prensa Latina, etc.
BelTA focuses on producing news stories about Belarus. Some 30-40 years ago, BelTA's newsfeed was accessible only to newspapers, television channels and radio stations, now the information is available to a broad audience in the country and abroad. Millions of people can directly access it via the company’s website belta.by, where news stories are available in several languages (Belarusian, Russian, English, German, Spanish, Chinese and Polish), as well as through social media and the Telegram channel.
BelTA is the country’s leading news organization in many respects. For example, BelTA has the biggest number of subscribers on YouTube among state-owned media- almost 1.9 million.
In recent years, the agency has been actively developing its YouTube channel. Such projects on the BelTA YouTube channel as On Point, President's Week, After the Fact: Lukashenko’s Decisions, Belarusians in the Focus and others have become a kind of brand. Each project has its own format, way of presenting information, and topic. Most videos have subtitles in foreign languages (English and German).
This year, BelTA, together with leading Belarusian media outlets, launched the videobel.by multimedia portal. It broadcasts the most popular socio-political programs of the leading Belarusian media: Belarus 1, ONT, STV, BelTA, MIR, SB.Belarus Segodnya and Fist News Channel. Every day, videobel.by publishes a selection of five most important news items. The content can be accessed conveniently from any device - from a smartphone to a widescreen TV. The programs, regardless of their duration, have time codes. In addition to that, you can select a channel and watch it live.
BelTA has the largest team of photojournalists in Belarus and one of the biggest newsreel archives in the country. The photo chronicle has 47,000 negatives and hundreds of thousands of electronic photographs. The photo feed is replenished with tens of thousands of photos every year.
The agency's history began on 23 December 1918, when a Belarusian branch of the Russian Telegraph Agency under the All-Russia Central Executive Committee opened in Minsk. Over the following years, it was renamed several times until it received its today’s name - the Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTA) on 7 March 1931.
Until 1991, BelTA was run from Moscow. TASS leased teletypes, BelTA received TASS newsfeed and sent back stories about the republic, which also landed on the desks of the USSR leadership.
Today, BelTA and TASS are equal partners. BelTA has about 30 partnership agreements with leading global news agencies, including the largest agencies of the CIS countries, China’s Xinhua and China Daily, Türkiye’s Anadolu Agency, Latin American Prensa Latina, etc.
BelTA focuses on producing news stories about Belarus. Some 30-40 years ago, BelTA's newsfeed was accessible only to newspapers, television channels and radio stations, now the information is available to a broad audience in the country and abroad. Millions of people can directly access it via the company’s website belta.by, where news stories are available in several languages (Belarusian, Russian, English, German, Spanish, Chinese and Polish), as well as through social media and the Telegram channel.
BelTA is the country’s leading news organization in many respects. For example, BelTA has the biggest number of subscribers on YouTube among state-owned media- almost 1.9 million.
In recent years, the agency has been actively developing its YouTube channel. Such projects on the BelTA YouTube channel as On Point, President's Week, After the Fact: Lukashenko’s Decisions, Belarusians in the Focus and others have become a kind of brand. Each project has its own format, way of presenting information, and topic. Most videos have subtitles in foreign languages (English and German).
This year, BelTA, together with leading Belarusian media outlets, launched the videobel.by multimedia portal. It broadcasts the most popular socio-political programs of the leading Belarusian media: Belarus 1, ONT, STV, BelTA, MIR, SB.Belarus Segodnya and Fist News Channel. Every day, videobel.by publishes a selection of five most important news items. The content can be accessed conveniently from any device - from a smartphone to a widescreen TV. The programs, regardless of their duration, have time codes. In addition to that, you can select a channel and watch it live.
BelTA has the largest team of photojournalists in Belarus and one of the biggest newsreel archives in the country. The photo chronicle has 47,000 negatives and hundreds of thousands of electronic photographs. The photo feed is replenished with tens of thousands of photos every year.
BelTA runs a modern press center, a video studio, a department of Internet projects and website development, its own publishing center, the weekly newspaper 7 Days, Bulletin of the Belarus President Administration, the monthly Belarusian Dumka Magazine, the quarterly Economy of Belarus Magazine.
The agency designs billboards and arranges several photo exhibitions per year. In 2024 the Belarusian Telegraph Agency has prepared the following photo exhibitions: Sovereign Belarus (about the country's achievements in various fields over the years of independence), Belarus. Takeoff (comparing the life of Belarusians 30 years ago and now) and Parallel Worlds (about two worlds: the world of the state, which is the world of creation and development, and the world of the opposition, which is the world of destruction and degradation). The agency’s exhibitions are run in various cities of Belarus, as well as abroad.
For almost 15 years - since 2009 - the agency has been contributing to belarus.by, the official website of the Republic of Belarus. The site helps challenge fake news and stereotypes created by those who have never been to Belarus. The website is available in Russian, English, Belarusian and Chinese.
For many years, BelTA has been a source of reliable information about Belarus, the activities of the Belarusian president and government, and everything that happens on Belarusian soil.
For many years, BelTA has been a source of reliable information about Belarus, the activities of the Belarusian president and government, and everything that happens on Belarusian soil.
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