Belta reported False: 210 Countries Boycott Olympic Games

On July 26, the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics featured a scene resembling Leonardo da Vinci's “The Last Supper,” which some religious groups deemed offensive. As a result, 210 countries around the world had banned the broadcast of the Games, Belarussian state-run news agency BelTA reported on August 1, 2024. The media outlet cited a Russian journalist living in France, Elena Kondratyeva-Salghero. The Weekly Top Fake team found out whether there was a ban.

“This was a global test across almost the entire world, because as you know, 210 governments banned the broadcast altogether. So the reaction was, I would say, generally negative and very sharp,” Kondratyeva-Salghero told BelTA in an interview on August 1, 2024.

However, the details of the alleged bans remain unclear. Kondratyeva-Salghero did not specify whether the governments prohibited the broadcast of the entire Olympic Games or just the opening ceremony. Nonetheless, there appears to be no credible evidence to support these claims.

At the time of publication, the recording is freely available on the Internet. It is only unavailable on the official IOC YouTube channel, which the IOC explained is due to the committee not having the rights to broadcast it in Europe and the UK.

More than 200 countries are participating in the Olympics. The list of countries that have acquired the rights to live broadcast is quite long. There has been no information that any of them have refused the broadcasts.

Antifake / Factcheck

‘Broadcasting of 2024 Paris Olympic Games is Banned in 210 Countries.’ Fake News Reported by BelTA

Other publications

Gender Reassignment Surgery for Everyone and New Forms of Human Conception in USA. ‘Something Terrible’ from Voskresensky and Elfimov Fact-checked

Also, both Yelfimov and Voskresenskiy discussed Michelle Obama, the wife of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama.

‘In Belarus, IT specialists didn't pay taxes.’ MP Klishevich Uncovered Unfairness, but Exaggerated Its Scope

Until 2021, the income tax rate for HTP IT workers was 9% of their salary, whereas teachers and milling machine operators paid a rate of 13%.

‘Belarus Boasts Its Inflation Rate Unmatched Anywhere in Europe’ Columnist Mukovozchik’s Words Fact-checked by WTF

Meanwhile, Eurostat's statistics for the same period show that Romania and Belgium had the highest inflation rates in the EU — 5.3% and 5.4%, respectively.