Belarusian Telegraph Agency
Native name | Беларускае тэлеграфнае агенцтва |
---|---|
Republican Unitary Enterprise | |
Industry | News media |
Founded | December 23, 1918 |
Headquarters | Minsk, Belarus |
Products | Wire service |
Owner | wholly owned by government of Belarus |
Website |
belta |
The Belarusian Telegraph Agency or BelTA (Belarusian: Беларускае Тэлеграфнае Агенцтва, Russian: Белорусское Телеграфное Агентство, БелТА) is the state-owned national news agency of the Republic of Belarus. It operates in Russian, Belarusian, English, German and Spanish languages.[1]
History
The agency was founded on December 23, 1918. During the Soviet times BelTA cooperated with the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS), although it was legally independent of it.
After the USSR seized to exist in 1991, BelTA has been the national news agency of Belarus. It transmits over a hundred daily reports, and provides information to other news agencies of Commonwealth of Independent States members about the activities of Belarusian officials and organizations in and out of the country.
BelTA has offices in all regions of Belarus, as well as abroad. The main office is in Minsk.
EU sanctions
The BelTA Director-General Dzmitry Zhuk has been banned from Entering the European Union between 2011 and 2016 as part of the EU's sanctions against Belarus following what the EU describes as a crackdown of opposition protests after the 2010 presidential election.[2] According to the EU Council's decision concerning restrictive measures against Belarus following the 2010 election, Dzmitry Zhuk is responsible for "relaying state propaganda in the media, which has supported and justified the repression of the democratic opposition and of civil society on December 19, 2010 using falsified information."[3]
See also
References
- ↑ BELTA website (English language version)
- ↑ Поўны спіс 208 беларускіх чыноўнікаў, якім забаронены ўезд у ЕС – [Full list of 208 Belarusian officials banned from entering the EU], Nasha Niva, October 11, 2011
- ↑ .Council Decision 2012/642/CFSP of 15 October 2012 concerning restrictive measures against Belarus, EUR-Lex, 2012