Ales Antsipenka: “Value of information about the elections seriously diminished”
Today the presentation of the third Monitoring Bulletin took place in the office of BAJ. The reporting period is September 2 – 15.
The expert thinks that the devaluation of information for people is connected with the significant changes in the mood of the society. The majority of the Belarusians do not have positive expectations for the future (firstly, because of the traumatic experience of currency devaluation and inflation). In all Belarus is being involved into a long-term period of economic and ideological stagnation, and people are more prone to show escapist behavior – striving to solve their own problems individually, far from the reality imposed by the system.
The citizen participation in the electoral process at this stage was minimal: experts remarked “practically total absence of voters’ opinion in the mass media concerning the candidates’ programs and voters’ attitude to social, economic, and political problems of the Belarusian society.”
"Although technically the given time span was supposed to be the most active phase of the campaigning in the run-up to the elections, the state-owned media did not provide the appropriate information support for it. Nor did they do anything to help as many voters as possible to watch or listen to the candidates’ media appearances," said in the Bulletin.
Read full Bulletin #3 in our Monitoring section.
The final press-conference on the elections will take place after the elections.
Source: baj.by
