BBC won't say "KGB"

The big news out of Balarus today is that the head of the country's "security force", the KGB, has announced that the opposition is plotting a violent coup after Sunday's elections. Stepan Sukhorenko also said that those who take part this "coup" could face capital punishment. I will talk more about his comments later, what I want to talk about right now is the BBC's coverage of this story.

Maybe its jus me, but I was extremely bothered by the fact that the BBC never once used the term "KGB" in their article. I instead, they simply referred to Sukhornenko as the head of "Belarus' security service." Personally, I think that the fact that this "security service" still uses the name "KGB" is rather notewothy. Also, the KGB is not a "security service" - that term implies that they are the local police force. A more accurate term to describe the organization would be "secret police". Their function is not to keep the Belorussian people safe, it is to make sure that anyone who criticises the government is....shall we say....taken care of. This was illustrated last week when they beat the snot out of opposition presidential candidate Alexander Kozulin.

In reality, the Belorussian opposition only want democracy and are asking for peaceful protests if the election is rigged (which it will be).Yet, the way I read the article, the BBC almost seems to buy the argument that the KGB... I mean... the "security service" are just trying to keep people safe from an opposition that may be planning a violent coup. I've seen some pretty wild stuff from the media, but I have to admit that this is the first time I have ever seen a news service sugarcoat the news in favor of a repressive Stalinist dictatorship.

Tags: Belarus, Revolutions, News, Politics, Media Bias, Mainstream Media, MSM, Bias, Denim Revolution, BBC, KGB, Lukashenko, Milinkevich, Kozulin