Belarus Segodnya Publishing House

The Belarus Segodnya Publishing House is an institution of the Administration of the President of the Republic of Belarus and one of the country’s principal state media holdings. Its flagship newspaper first appeared as Rabochiy on 9 August 1927, was renamed Sovetskaya Belorussiya in 1937 and adopted the name SB. Belarus Segodnya in September 2018. In 2013 the newspaper became the centre of a holding bringing together five national titles, and Alfa Radio joined in 2015.

Media assets

Newspapers: SB. Belarus Segodnya, Respublika, published since 1991, Narodnaya Gazeta, since 1990, Selskaya Gazeta, since 1921, and Znamya Yunosti, since 1938

Radio: Alfa Radio, which joined the holding in 2015, and Radio Pobeda

Online: sb.by, registered in December 2018 as the first network edition in Belarus

The publishing house also carries a wider range of titles on its platform, including the magazine Spetsnaz, the newspapers Soyuz and Soyuznoye Veche, The Minsk Times, Vesti Potrebkooperatsii, SB — Tendentsii and Expert. Several of these are described as joint projects created in partnership with the flagship title rather than as wholly owned publications.

Ownership and governance

The publishing house is an institution established by and affiliated with the Administration of the President, which appoints its senior editorial and managerial staff. Journalists and media experts interviewed by State Media Monitor in May 2024 described a governance structure designed to ensure alignment with presidential priorities rather than editorial independence.

Dzmitry Zhuk has served as Editor-in-Chief since 2018 and has retained his post despite European Union and Swiss sanctions. Zhuk left the publishing house in April 2026, when President Lukashenko appointed him Minister of Information of Belarus. On 11 June 2026 Lukashenko appointed Olga Anufrieva as Director–Editor-in-Chief of the Belarus Segodnya Publishing House. She previously headed the Zvyazda publishing house.

That the outgoing head of the state’s flagship publishing house was moved directly into the ministry responsible for regulating the media is itself a governance finding, and one that bears on the independence of both institutions. Mikhail Lebedik serves as First Deputy to the Director–Editor-in-Chief.

Source of funding and budget

The publishing house and its newspapers receive state financial support. All five principal newspapers were included in the Government’s list of print publications supported from the republican budget for 2023, having received support under the corresponding arrangements in 2022.

Experts interviewed by State Media Monitor in 2024 described state support as the holding’s principal source of financing. The publishing house also earns commercial income, including advertising revenue, but State Media Monitor could not identify a 2026 appropriation, published financial statements, audited accounts or a breakdown between state and commercial income.

Editorial independence

The editorial line is set within the Presidential Administration, which established the publishing house and appoints its senior staff.

A content analysis of the main digital portal conducted for State Media Monitor in March and April 2023 found an extremely high density of pro-presidential coverage, with narratives closely mirroring official state discourse. That pattern persisted through 2024 and 2025, particularly in coverage of Belarus’s alignment with Russia over Ukraine and the presentation of Western sanctions as an information war.

The publishing house’s current platform carries sections including Antifake, Countering Extremism and Donbass. Special Report, alongside coverage organised around the All-Belarusian People’s Assembly.

Articles 4 to 7 of Belarus’s Law on Mass Media, Law No. 427-Z of 17 July 2008, list diversity of opinion and free expression among the principles governing the media and prohibit censorship, monopolisation, demands for prior approval, interference in the professional autonomy of an editorial entity and coercion of journalists to publish or withhold information.

Those provisions provide no structural independence here. The publishing house is an institution of the Presidential Administration, which appoints its leadership, and State Media Monitor identified no independent mechanism capable of applying the statutory protections against that authority.

European Union restrictive-measures instruments have referred to Sovetskaya Belorussiya or Belarus Segodnya when describing the activities of designated media officials. In July 2024 the European Union added then Director–Editor-in-Chief Dzmitry Zhuk to its sanctions list, and Switzerland subsequently adopted a corresponding designation. The newspaper and publishing house were not thereby designated as entities.

AI and digital policy

State Media Monitor could not identify a published Belarus Segodnya policy governing generative artificial intelligence, mandatory human verification, model provenance or audience disclosure, and could not establish the extent of adoption in production.

The publishing house’s platform carries a section titled Neurocomic, an audience-facing label indicating some AI-branded publishing activity. State Media Monitor could not establish how that material is produced, or whether individual items explain how artificial intelligence was used or what human review was applied.

State Media Monitor did not establish whether Belarus has adopted a statutory framework requiring disclosure of AI-generated content.

Classification rationale

Belarus Segodnya remains classified State-Controlled Media (SC).

It is state-established and directly state-governed. The publishing house is an institution of the Administration of the President, which appoints its senior editorial and managerial staff, and the President personally appointed the current Director–Editor-in-Chief on 11 June 2026. No independent supervisory board or protected appointment procedure was identified.

It is state-funded. All five principal newspapers were included in the Government’s list of print publications supported from the republican budget for 2023, having received support in 2022. Experts interviewed in 2024 described state support as the principal source. The proportion of total revenue remains undisclosed.

Its editorial agenda is directed by the state. Content analysis conducted in March and April 2023 found an extremely high density of pro-presidential coverage, a pattern that persisted through 2025. Articles 4 to 7 of the Law on Mass Media contain formal protections unsupported by independent governance or enforcement.

September 2026