Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy, the founder and director of Belsat, has received the prestigious Polish Orły Wprost award. She was given the statue of the Eagle for her many years of selfless work for the benefit of democratic Belarus.
Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy received the award “for her outstanding coverage of the conflicts in the East, the situation in Belarus during the biggest protests after the 2020 elections, the events on the Polish-Belarusian border during the migration crisis, as well as for her many years of selfless work for a democratic Belarus.
The director of Belsat was awarded Orły Wprost in the “Personality” category. Director of the Polish Film Institute Radoslaw Smigulski received the award in the same category.
In her speech at the award ceremony, Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy admitted to being a little embarrassed, as she was almost the only winner who was not directly related to doing business.
“But whether we are in business or journalism, teaching or mining copper, we all live in the same socio-political environment, in which the principal role is whether there is calm around or war. And you have to pay attention to that.
Because some people thought that history was over and that nothing interesting would happen to us anymore. But it turns out that a lot of interesting things still happen all the time, unfortunately too “interesting,” said Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy.
In her speech, she also recalled the history of Belsat TV, when in 2006-2007 a team of 20 people was broadcasting “three minutes in the Belarusian language”. Fifteen years later, that team increased 15-fold, and Belsat has developed into Europe’s largest and most important eastward-facing media outlet.
“And it turned out to be worth believing! If someone really believes and thinks they have a point, it’s worth it. It’s crazy hard sometimes, but it’s worth investing in the future. After all, in 2007, no one knew that 2020 would be the year of revolution in Belarus or 2022 – the year of war in Ukraine.
It turned out that everything we did was not in vain. So we keep working. It’s difficult, but very fruitful and interesting work,” said Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy.
Orły Wprost is an award given to companies, local governments, scientists, public figures and other outstanding personalities who have made a special contribution to the development of the economy, region and country, who take care of Poland every day and create a modern face of the country.
The symbol of the award was the coat of arms of the Republic of Poland – the image of the White Eagle – which remained in the London residence of the President of the Government of the Second Polish Republic. The history of the founding of the award goes back to 2015 when this coat of arms was presented to Michał Maciej Lisiecki, publisher of the weekly Wprost, on behalf of the Ryszard Kaczorowski Institute.
Zmitser Mirash belsat.eu
