As of 1 May 2010, there were 1,281 print media in the Republic of Belarus (of them 651 newspapers, the rest are magazines, bulletins, catalogues), 233 electronic media, eight news agencies (966 of them are private). Periodicals are published in Belarusian, Russian, English, German, Polish and Ukrainian. All national publications are available on the Web; 93 local state-run socio-political newspapers out of 136 have their own websites.
The largest of the news agencies is the Belarusian News Agency (BelTA). In 2009 the official website of the Republic of Belarus, www.belarus.by, was spruced up and updated to make sure the most important information about Belarus is available on the Internet. The update work was carried out by BelTA.
In late 2009 the official website of Belarus, www.belarus.by, rose in its Google PageRank from 7 to 8 out of 10.
On 8 February 2009, the new Mass Media Law came into force. The new piece of legislation secures reliability of information, legality, equality, respect for human rights and liberties, pluralism, standards of industrial ethics. Every individual has a guaranteed right to freedom of opinion and free expression.
Today there are 158 radio and 77 TV channels registered in Belarus; there are five national TV channels, namely, Pervy (First), LAD, ONT, Stolichnoye Televidenie (Capital City Television, STV) and an international satellite channel, Belarus TV. In 2002 Pervy Muzikalny Telekanal (First Music Channel) was launched; today it is broadcast via satellite.
There are 29 FM radio stations in Belarus.
The radio station Belarus is the only state-run radio station broadcasting outside Belarus. Its programs are available in Belarusian, Russian, English, German, and Polish. The Internet site at www.radiobelarus.tvr.by is visited by listeners from more than 80 countries.
Belarus has never closed its information space. Belarus seeks to expand information exchange and cooperation with other countries. There are over 6,000 foreign print media available in Belarus, the majority of which are Russian publications. Cable TV providers retransmit over 100 foreign TV channels. RTR-Belarus and NTV-Belarus are the TV channels with combined Belarusian-Russian content.
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