BELARUS: Belarus state television, BT, gave a new meaning to "free and fair reporting" yesterday as it screened an election special on the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko, the man who has been dubbed "Europe's last dictator".
In previous weeks, state television has portrayed Mr Lukashenko, president since 1994, as a voice for calm and order, while in edited speeches of his opponents, consisting sometimes of extracts of only a few seconds, it portrayed them as fiery and emotional.
Happily, most voters interviewed on this election special, while not disclosing who they were voting for, declared that "calm" was top of their agenda.
"I am for the economic strategy that is going now," one voter, a bearer of military medals, told an interviewer. "I want stability in Belarus."
The leader of the Orthodox Church, the bearded Metropolitan, emerged from a voting booth into the snow wearing a black hat with a silver cross. "
I am sure the people will make the right choice, just as I have done," he said. "They must lead Belarus to be a powerful and great state." No prizes for guessing who that means.
Sadly, there was no time to show the opposition candidates when they went to vote, but the election special did manage to show the president - twice.
The first time was live, as he gave a posy of flowers to the pretty girl who handed him his voting papers. But when the first reporter's question was asked, the station abruptly cut back to the studio.
It returned to the president 20 minutes later, but the question itself had been edited out, leaving only his answer.
"The campaign is very calm, even more calm than previous elections. All these appeals (by the opposition) saying 'let's do something' are just for frightening the people."
In this mood of calm it was felt unnecessary to screen the press conference of leading opposition candidate Alexander Milinkevich, in which he complained of "100 per cent falsification".
Then, in an apparent breach of monitoring rules, the station began showing exit poll results - long before those polling stations had actually closed.
And what results. Breathlessly announced by the smiling young female announcer, they showed Mr Lukashenko with 10 times the votes of Mr Milinkevich.
Scores of election monitors have been refused entry, opposition papers have been shut down and Minsk ringed with police and dozens of opponents jailed, but state television still found one monitor, British academic Mark Almond, who declared the election a galloping success. Other human rights groups have given the cold shoulder to his tiny British Helsinki Group, also a critic of last year's Orange Revolution in Ukraine, but Mr Almond was happy to say that the Belarus election was of "a high standard, not only compared with elections with our neighbours but in certain respects with elections in my own country" .
Watching all this at opposition headquarters was a woman - like most people here she prefers not to give her name - who last year joined international monitors watching the British general election.
I asked her how this compared with her time in England. "The election campaign in Britain is quite different," she said, then broke off. After a pause she shook her head: "We live on another planet."