I turn on TV news every day, only to cringe and switch the channel in disgust. I am extremely insulted by the top stories of the hour being about Tom Cruise’s new baby or another celebrity trial. I’m sorry, news channels, but that is just not breaking news no matter how urgent your anchors make it sound.There is so much else going wrong in the world today that needs our attention – but so much of it is being ignored.

A good example is the small European country of Belarus. A year ago, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice referred to it as “the last remaining true dictatorship in the heart of Europe,” and today, nothing has changed. In fact, nothing has changed since Alexander Lukashenko came to power in 1994.

For the last 12 years, he has been brutally suppressing all opposition and holding referendums to grant himself more powers. The two-term limit of elected president no longer applies to him because of one such referendum in 2004. There is virtually no freedom of speech within the country. And insulting the president carries a prison-term punishment.

In March, the country held another presidential election, Lukashenko’s third. The election was once again won by Lukashenko and once again hailed by the Western world as “fundamentally flawed.” The only news coverage the country received during this time was when there were protesters on the streets who were in danger of clashing with the government police.

Once the government successfully clamped down on the protesters, the media lost all interest and went back to the more pressing stories, such as new developments in the Natalie Holloway disappearance.

Belarus was, for a short while, in the spotlight. We were shown photographs of protesters being dragged away and could read stories of police blockades throughout the capital. That was pretty exciting stuff, right?

But the protesters were jailed or beaten; the opposition was weakened and is no longer out on the streets demanding change. Belarus is still a dictatorship and whatever was wrong when the media talked about it in March is still wrong now. But as the news coverage faded, Lukashenko’s regime is still standing strong.

No matter how important a story is, the media have a lot of problems coming to grips with continuity, says assistant professor of political science Adam Schiffer.

“If there are no changes, it will be ignored,” he said.

And Belarus doesn’t make it easy for the world’s media to cover it, either. Most foreign press representatives need a visa to enter Belarus. If the journalist happens to be from a country not required to have a visa, he or she still needs a license. Without a license, you can’t report.

Yuri Zarakhovich of Time magazine learned this not long before the March elections. He wrote a story the Belarus government deemed unfavorable, and his license was revoked. And even though he is allowed to travel to Belarus, he says that if he is seen there, he will be sent out of the country because he is no longer allowed to report from it.

But instead of backing away from covering Belarus, journalists should only try harder because of examples such as this. If such action by a government in the “heart of Europe” is not news, then what is?

Schiffer says the idea of a beautiful white woman gone missing is a lot more appealing for journalists today.

Nevermind that the politically motivated disappearances happen on a regular basis in Belarus, as reported by human rights watchdogs. Schiffer says disappearance cases such as Holloway’s, or celebrity trials, are just more “sexy.”

“It’s just a really long episode of ‘Law and Order,'” he says. The police searches and loud trials with unexpected verdicts are exciting, and the media are convinced that is what the public truly wants to see.

So I’m sorry, the 10 million people of Belarus, your suppression of freedoms and daily fight to live under a tyrant are not as exciting as Michael Jackson being accused of child molestation. And I am sorry, genocide victims of African countries whose killers are still at large. More important issues, such as O.J. Simpson’s trial, took precedence.

And I’m sorry, every other nation, either war-torn or suppressed by illegitimate dictators, we will more than likely never know of your struggles. Angelina is about to have Brad’s baby. Until that’s over … don’t count on getting the world’s attention.

Copy desk chief Olga Bograd is a senior international communication major from Moscow.