Belarus authorities tempting Poland to cut Belsat TV air time?


v

The Belarusian authorities might okay Polish TV channels broadcasting via cable network on condition that Poland cuts Belsat TV air time, the newspaper Nasz Dziennik reports with no reference to any source.

According to the newspaper, it is the public TV stations TVP Polonia or TVP1 that stand a chance to enter Belarus’ mediamarket.

“We do not know anything about negotiations of this kind,” Belsat TV Director Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy says.

“Oficially, there are no such agreements. TVP Polonia had been available in Belarus until the authorities banned the transmission of the channel in 2005. And now it is simply ridiculous to pretend that the [Belarusian] government is making any concession to the Polish side. The first channel of Polish Television (TVP 1) cannot be included in the terrestrial television in Belarus due to licensing rights. In addition, TVP Polonia is created on the basis of TVP1 and TVP2 programmes, which will lead to the same licensing problems. One should realize that replacing Belsat TV with TVP Polonia is nonsense, because Belsat is a channel for Belarusians while the main audience of TVP Polonia is the Polish minority and diaspora,” she adds.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

The Polish-Belarusian relations have greatly improved lately, Nasz Dziennik notes. Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski’s arrival in Belarus broke the ice in March; his Belarusian counterpart Uladzimir Makey visited Warsaw in October. In 2016, the Belarusian authorities welcomed Ryszard Terlecki, Deputy Speaker of the Polish Sejm, and Mateusz Morawiecki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Development.

During his visit to Belarus, Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski met with representatives of civil sociiety and opposition and promised that Poland would continue supporting a number of Belarusian projects.

It should be noted that a propaganda battle started on several fronts – reports mentioning Belsat appeared all at once in Lukashenka’s mouthpiece newspaper and Russian state-run media.

[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”402498″ img_size=”large” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row]”The pressure on Belsat TV has been ramped up in recent weeks. Firstly, a libel article in Sovetskaya Byelorussia appeared; now there are rumours published by Nasz Dziennik,” Romaszewska-Guzy stresses.

belsat.eu

TWITTER