Today I met two Chinese visiting scholars to UNC. I learnt from them that satellite dishes were forbidden in China. And also tonight a Fulbrighter from Uzbekistan shared that internet access via satellite was banned in his home country. I guess it does make Belarus seem a bit freer if compared to those nations, doesn’t it?
We do can buy satellite dishes. Before coming to the United States, I had owned three and could watch hundreds of channels with no objections from the authorities. I could even pay some 50 bucks a month and have a high speed satellite internet access. Now there are a lot of rumors about Lukashenka’s possible plans to establish a harsher control of the internet. Well, for him this would seem rather logical as the web remains the only domain where opposition is clearly in the lead. Absolute majority of informational websites provide many-sided coverage of the events or clearly reflect viewpoints of Belarusian opposition. But with a small percentage of people having access to the internet, this information remains a privilege of the techie few, mostly young and educated residents of the capital. As for the print media, almost all independent newspapers are on the verge of survival. Thrown out of the state-monopoly distribution system, Belarus’ free media are currently working hard to find ways to their readers. And it is damn hard.
Well, here are a few links that may shed some light on this issue: