MINSK, 9 February (BelTA) - Over the past ten years, more than $70 million has been allocated for the Poland-based Belsat news channel targeting the Belarusian audience recognized as extremist organization in Belarus, the Iznanka [Inside Out] project on Belarus 1 TV channel said in its latest episode, BelTA has learned.
According to the Iznanka project, information from open sources suggests that more than 300 million zlotys (more than $70 million) were spent on the news channel from 2009 to 2019. Over the following years, the Polish society has urged the government to redirect tens of millions spent on Belsat employees towards support and treatment of young Poles suffering from cancer, Belarus 1 noted.
"President Duda is not listening. This is why journalists from the extremist editorial office, who are especially loyal to Duda and PiS, rent apartments in Warsaw for $600 and open their own shops and businesses in the heart of the Polish capital. “It is true that Belsat is an independent channel in the sense that it is independent from Belarus. Their journalists do not work in Belarus. It is out of touch from the developments in the country, opinions of Belarusians or freedom of speech. It has nothing to do with free journalism, because it is subordinate to the Polish government and its aggressive foreign policy pursued by the PiS party,” Belarus 1 stressed.
According to Andrei Starikov, a political scientist, the head of Baltnews news agency, since 2007 Belsat has been promoting the Polish agenda in Belarus. “The policy of Belsat TV channel has correlated with the policy of the Polish state. The more Poland worsened relations with Belarus, the more it walked away from neighborly coexistence, the more aggressive and anti-Belarusian Belsat became in its policies,” Andrei Starikov said.
