Polish Public Television turns to Foreign Ministry for support: Belsat TV future at stake


Jacek Kurski (L) and Witold Waszczykowski (R), phot. by PAP

The Polish Public Television (TVP) will have to close Belsat TV down unless the Ministry of Foreign Affairs resumes supporting the channel, TVP Head Jacek Kurski said in a letter to Poland’s Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski.

The letter of the TVP Head was also conveyed to Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło.

“The channel may cease to exist if there is no political will of the Polish state to continue supporting it,”  Belsat TV Director Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy stresses.

According to Jacek Kurski, he would like Belsat TV to continue its existence and work, but TVP will not be able to maintain it on their own.

“This is not an ultimatum, but an attempt to save the channel,” the Polish newspaper Dziennik Gazeta Prawna quotes Kurski as saying.

The Polish Public Television and the Foreign Ministry’s cooperation on Belsat TV is coming to an end. The Ministry has refused to finance the channel. The decision will take effect on December, 31.

“I do not want to be the one to squeeze Belsat TV of existence, but the maintenance of a channel for foreign audience is not in the scope of the TVP statute. We have been doing it under the agreement signed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That is why I asked Minister Waszczykowski whether he had not changed his mind,” Jacek Kurski added.

The Foreign Ministry has not yet responded to his letter. According to the press service, the corresponding information will be published after sending the official reply which is ‘being prepared’.

Until 2017,  Belsat was financed under the agreement between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and TVP, but it was not the only source of support. At that, funding provided by the Foreign Ministry does not have to be the single possible way of keeping the channel. For example, Radio Liberty is not financed by the Department of State, but by the U.S. Congress. Much depends not on the MFA obligation to TVP, but on the will of the Polish government to preserve of the independent Belarusian TV station.

Belsat TV audience has grown twofold in the last 3 years. According to the study conducted by the Civitta Group SATIO in May 2017, 10% of Belarusian adult сitizens (over 750,000) watch Belsat. The total population of Belarus is around 9.5 mln, including 7.5 mln adults.

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