Photo: Belarusian President's website
BelTA Agency employees believe that CNN journalist Matthew Chance did his own publicity when he interviewed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. He believes that the purpose of the conversation was not the leader's answers to the questions, but “open confrontation.” “The final material came out more than strangely, surprisingly shortly and not at all like a real interview,” the report says.
He claims that Chance “broke all the rules of journalism.” As a result, American viewers were shown only eight minutes of nearly an hour's conversation. At the same time, most of it is occupied by “author's comments and video edits.” The TV channel also agreed to these requirements in the approval phase, BelTA recalls.
However, Belarusian journalists criticized their American colleagues. They noted that “CNN broke the bottom and left only a few phrases in the air from an hour-long conversation with Lukashenko.” After the recording, Chance himself stressed that CNN does not accept any restrictions on how to use the interview materials.
The whole conversation lasted about an hour and a half. However, only a small edited piece of the conversation was sent on the channel. Belarusian state channels began broadcasting source material without modification.
Meanwhile, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, commented on Lukashenko's interview with the American television channel. “They believed in exclusivity so much that they completely lost their instinct. Here, as they say, Belarusian guerrillas met them,” Zakharova jokingly wrote about CNN on her telegram channel.