Belarusian Foreign Ministry confirmed the reports about the Polish initiative to add TVP Polonia channel to the Belarusian cable networks’ offer.
“This issue is not entirely within the competence of the Foreign Ministry: there are certain technical aspects, as well as legal nuances associated with foreign media entering the Belarusian information market. All these facts require serious consideration, including with regard to the principle of reciprocity,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Dzmitry Mironchyk said.
On December 18, Witold Wazczykowski, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, voiced the ministry’s plans of Belsat TV transition to a web mode and its journalists’ transfer to TVP Polonia. On a practical level, such changes would mean the closure of Belsat.
“The Belarusian side offered an alternative, i.e broadcasting TVP Polonia across the entire territory of Belarus. Thus, Belarusian society would be able to see what life in the neighboring country [Poland] looks like,” said the Polish minister.
At the same time, Mr Mironchyk notes that Polish TV channels have long been available in much of the territory of Belarus. According to the Foreign Ministry, ‘modern technology gives an opportunity to watch them at any place in our country’.
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Answering the question of Tut.by whether the Belarusian side demanded to stop Belsat TV broadcasting, Dzmitry Mironchyk said: “Belsat is a Polish project. Therefore, all questions about it should be put to our Polish partners.”
