The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not intend to liquidate Belsat TV; modernization and reforms are the case, the ministry’s spokeswoman Joanna Wajda said on Thursday.
In the future, Belsat ‘in the form of an Internet portal’ could become part of TVP Zagranica (TVP World), the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita reports with reference to Ms Wajda.
In 2007-2015, the cost of Belsat amounted to PLN 220 mln, the best part of which came from the state budget, the ministry told news agency PAP.
“Now it is planned not to cut additional financing off, but to keep it down, there is a need to implement other priority programs,” the press secretary stressed.
According to Joanna Wajda, Poland will continue to support independent media and ‘democratization efforts’ in Belarus. “We believe that freedom of speech, freedom of expression, tolerance and political pluralism are crucial for the development of the Belarusian society,” she said.
“[This is] modernization through liquidation. For PLN 5 mln (Belsat TV budget for 2017 in case of a cut) one can create another website in the Belarusian mediaspace – but what for? There are several portals working. Why should we create a new perspective competitor? Under such circumstances, if one wants to help, they would rather give these 5 million towards orphanages in Belarus,” Belsat TV Director Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy commented on the statement.
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.
- Belsat TV Director makes statement on channel’s future
- What is ‘Belsat’ and how many Belarusians watch it?
- BelarusDigest: Supporting Belsat is in the real interest of Warsaw and Minsk
There is an online petition to support “Belsat” on the Internet. To sign it, you need to follow the link.
