No Disinformation Found: Information Ministry Bounced Public Petition
The Ministry of Information does not have any information “about outright calumniation and disinformation regarding Ukrainian and Belarusian events on the mainstream Russian TV channels.”
This is what Information Ministry replied to a petition demanding to review a peculiar TV program on the Russian 1st channel and to assess if the program complies with the Belarusian Law on Mass Media. The petition questioning credibility of the 1st channel's information was filed by Barys Haretski, the spokesperson of BAJ.
The news episode on the 1st channel “A refugee from Slovyansk tells how a militiaman's young song and wife were executed” evoked wide public response. The witness in the episode gave too shocking information to believe, and many people doubted it could happen.
The official reply signed by the Deputy Minister of Information says: "The Ministry of Information does not have any information about outright calumniation and disinformation regarding Ukrainian and Belarusian events taking place daily on the mainstream Russian TV channels” that you mentioned in your petition, and it is not entitled to comment violations of law of the Russian Federation by the editorial office of the 1st channel.”
The Ministry kindly reminded that it can withdraw license on broadcasting only in case the broadcaster roughly violates the law on licensing, i.e. if it “disseminates information banned or restricted by legislation”.
The petition to ban broadcasting of Russian channels in Belarus is not the first one: such initiatives occurred earlier.
