“A journalist’s happiness is to practise the ideas they live with, believe in their work and be paid for it,” news resource Mediakritika quotes Henadz Davydzka. The head of the Belarusian National Television Company has recently had a meeting with his would-be colleagues at the Institute of Journalism.
Mr Davydzka stated that sometimes a person goes against the ideas if their propaganda is less paid, and called such behaviour “mental prostitution”. He did not specify where the propaganda for money concerns journalism bur added that his words apply to “quasi journalists working for Belsat TV”. At that, Henadz Davydzka stressed that he does not watch the channel’ programs.
He also tried to explain why representatives of independent media had never been invited to program “Editors’Club”. According to Mr Davydzka, he personally called editors of newspapers Narodnaya Volya and Belgazeta and they agreed to take part in the program under condition that it would be in a live television broadcast: the prospective participants feared that otherwise their expressions could be taken out of context and misquoted.
“But I am not able to provide live broadcasting because the studio is occupied on Sundays and Sarurdays. We do not have another large studio where we could have our conversation,” the head of the Belarusian National Television confessed. It is noteworthy that the Company comprising three national and five regional channels, does possess all the necessary equipment and premises.
