{"id":16294,"date":"2021-02-04T05:56:03","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T05:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/informnapalm.org\/en\/?p=16294"},"modified":"2021-02-04T05:59:46","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T05:59:46","slug":"incidents-at-the-belarusian-nuclear-power-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/informnapalm.org\/en\/incidents-at-the-belarusian-nuclear-power-plant\/","title":{"rendered":"Incidents at the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant are being covered up using falsehoods, mockery and made-up facts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Illustration: alkhaleejtoday.co<\/em><\/p>\n

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Prior the launch of Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant (BelNPP) in Astravets, voices from international community have expressed their concerns about the safety of the plant. Being the closest neighbour, Lithuania was one of the most active opponents of the BelNPP, which has resulted in continuous attempts to discredit their concerns. Throughout December, various Russian media outlets were accusing Lithuania of being unreasonable and causing unnecessary panic about the plant being not secure enough. Moreover, there were insinuations that together with European Union, Lithuania is interfering in Belarusian affairs and there is a political reasoning behind their refusal to buy energy from the BelNPP.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The analysis was carried out by Debunk EU<\/a> with a contribution of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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The relevance of this research was dictated by the events that occurred at the end of 2020. The physical and power start-up of the first reactor in October 2020, the \u2018official opening\u2019 <\/strong>of the BelNPP on November 7th, 2020, and several consequent unplanned stopovers and equipment failure of the plant were accompanied by significant increase of disinformation. <\/strong> Moreover, even observing the general flow of disinformation about the positions and statements of European countries towards the BelNPP, the position of Lithuania and actions receive a special attention by the Russian media, and the new government and its representatives become important targets of lies and insinuation attempts.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Distribution by types of information (out of all 406 analysed content pieces), @DebunkEU data<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

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Debunk EU team has examined 406<\/strong> articles (December 2020) in the Russian media, 148<\/strong> of which contained a disinformative or misleading messages about Lithuania\u2018s position on the BelNPP. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Analysing the scope of disinformation against the Lithuanian position on the BelNPP the several waves of the increased flow were observed during December 2020. The main triggers were:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n