Belarusian Television and Radio Company (BTRC, Belteleradiocompany)

The National State Television and Radio Company of the Republic of Belarus, commonly known as Belteleradiocompany or BTRC, is the country’s state television and radio broadcaster. Belarusian radio first went on air on 15 November 1925 from station RV-10, named after the Council of People’s Commissars of the Byelorussian SSR, broadcasting for thirty minutes a day within a radius of approximately 300 kilometres. Television followed on 1 January 1956.

Media assets

Television: Belarus 1, Belarus 2, Belarus 3, Belarus 4, Belarus 5, Belarus 24, NTV Belarus and First News Channel

Online television: Belarus 5 Internet

Radio: First National Channel, Radio Belarus, Culture, Stalitsa and Radius FM

Regional television and radio companies: Brest, Vitebsk, Gomel, Grodno and Mogilev

Belarus 1 carries news and current affairs; Belarus 2 entertainment and sport; Belarus 3 cultural programming largely in Belarusian; Belarus 5 sport; Belarus 24 is the international service; and NTV Belarus is a local version of Russia’s NTV. First News Channel began broadcasting in September 2024. Radio Belarus is the multilingual international service. The five regional companies provide the regional services distributed under the Belarus 4 brand.

Ownership and governance

BTRC is a central state institution subordinate and accountable to the President of the Republic of Belarus under Presidential Decree No. 174 of 24 April 2003. The President appoints and dismisses its chairman.

Ivan Eismont was appointed Chairman on 6 February 2018 and remained listed in that position in September 2026.

Source of funding and budget

BTRC receives financing through appropriations in the republican budget approved by the National Assembly and also earns non-budget revenue.

The published record gives state financing of BYN 123.9 million in 2020, described as the country’s largest media subsidy that year. This figure should be accompanied by its underlying budget or official government source before publication.

In a 2020 interview, Chairman Ivan Eismont acknowledged that BTRC earned its own revenue but declined to disclose its share of total financing, describing that information as commercially confidential.

Editorial independence

BTRC operates under direct presidential control, and Belarusian journalists and policy analysts interviewed by State Media Monitor in 2023 and 2024 described its editorial direction as controlled through the presidency. BTRC’s own institutional description states that Belarus 3 and Belarus 5 participate in implementing state information policy, providing direct evidence of the system’s governmental editorial remit.

Formal statutory safeguards exist. 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, demands for prior approval, interference in the professional autonomy of an editorial entity and coercion of journalists to publish or withhold information.

Those provisions do not create structural independence at BTRC. The company is subordinate and accountable to the President, who appoints and dismisses its chairman, and State Media Monitor identified no independent governance or enforcement mechanism capable of applying the statutory protections against the state owner.

In 2021 the European Broadcasting Union suspended BTRC, citing suppression of media freedom, government interference and broadcasts of interviews apparently obtained under duress. In April 2024 the EBU said it had no reason to change its position, leaving BTRC outside active EBU membership.

AI and digital policy

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

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

Classification rationale

BTRC remains classified State-Controlled Media (SC).

It is state-owned and directly presidentially governed. The company is a central state institution subordinate and accountable to the President under Presidential Decree No. 174 of 24 April 2003, and the President appoints and dismisses its chairman. No independent supervisory board, protected appointment procedure or external oversight mechanism was identified.

It is state-funded. BTRC receives appropriations in the republican budget approved by the National Assembly. It also earns non-budget revenue, the share of which its chairman has declined to disclose. No 2026 appropriation, accounts or revenue breakdown was identified.

Its editorial agenda is directed by the state. BTRC is institutionally subordinate to the President, its own materials describe channels as implementing state information policy, and interview evidence describes presidential control of editorial direction. The EBU suspended the company after citing government interference and serious concerns about its broadcasts. Although Articles 4 to 7 of the Law on Mass Media contain formal protections for expression and editorial autonomy, they are not supported by independent governance or enforcement.

September 2026