Roman Protasevich’s pardon, BBC Verify launch – weekly news digest

Belarusian opposition journalist Roman Protasevich was pardoned this week, shortly after being sentenced to eight years in prison.

Protasevich is a former editor of Nexta, a key voice of Belarusian 2020 democratic protests. He was arrested two years ago when the Lukashenka regime essentially hijacked a commercial plane flying from Athens to Vilnius, forcing it to make a landing in Minsk and detaining Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega. 

After his arrest, Protasevich said he was cooperating with Belarusian authorities to “atone for the harm” caused by his actions. However, “Protasevich’s parents called on viewers to regard his statements with skepticism, saying they were delivered under duress”, Meduza reports.

Almost three years after the crackdown on democratic protests following the rigged 2020 presidential election, Belarus remains a country with perhaps the worst state of press freedom in the region. Over the past couple of years dozens of independent journalists were jailed, and most others were forced to leave the country.

BBC News launched BBC Verify, a brand aimed at increasing transparency and fostering audience trust by opening the curtains behind the reporting and verification process. 

The team, which will include around 60 people from across the organisation’s departments, “will showcase the advanced editorial tools and techniques BBC news journalists are using to investigate, source and verify information, video, and images”, the announcement notes. Members of the team will appear across BBC content on TV, radio and online.

“[A]s AI weaponises and turbocharges the impact and consequences of disinformation, [the BBC’s work verifying information and video content] has never been more important”, CEO of BBC News Deborah Turness wrote. The aim is to make the work already being done more visible to the audience at the time when trust in news is on the decline.

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Twitter has improved its standing among advertisers, which was worsened by Elon Musk’s erratic behaviour and drastic staffing cuts, following the hire of new CEO Linda Yaccarino, who comes from the advertising industry.

As Financial Times reports, one of the world’s biggest media agencies GroupM removed its designation of the platform as “high risk”. The decision will encourage GroupM’s clients to spend more money on Twitter ads; other advertising agencies also see “warming to the idea of returning to Twitter”, FT notes. 

Yaccarino’s hire as Twitter CEO was announced earlier in May, with Musk staying on as executive chair and chief technology officer. Her arrival “marked [Twitter’s] push to woo back dozens of major advertisers who deserted the platform” following its acquisition by Musk, FT writes. 

Source of the cover photo: https://www.flickr.com 

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