Entitled Focus on the Border, Polish Radio's English-language reporting from the flashpoint area gives voice to local residents and the people who guard Poland's border, which is also the outer edge of the European Union and NATO, the broadcaster's IAR news agency has reported.
"This is a counterweight to the Russian and Belarusian narratives, replicated by Western media outlets," said Andrzej Rybałt, the director of Polish Radio's foreign-language service, Radio Poland.
He added that "Putin and Lukashenko's version of events is unfortunately being absorbed by many naïve people in Europe and America."
'Too much air time' for Putin, Lukashenko
Rybałt has told reporters that even respectable news outlets, such as the BBC, CNN and Deutsche Welle, "are giving too much air time to" Russian President Vladimir Putin, Belarus' strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
As a result, these politicians are able to "focus people's attention on the migration crisis and the tragic fate of the migrants, while absolutely denying that they had been the actual instigators of what is going on at Belarus' border with Poland and Lithuania," Rybałt said on Thursday.
He added that slanderous attacks on Polish and Lithuanian border forces echoed Russia's smear campaign against Ukraine in 2013 and 2014 when Moscow was preparing to annex the Crimea peninsula.
'Focus on the Border'
Unveiled on Thursday, Radio Poland's "Focus on the Border" service aims to counterbalance Russian and Belarusian propaganda with credible, objective, English-language reporting on the crisis, executives told reporters.
Exploring the causes and effects of the border standoff, the content is available at the polskieradio.pl website and on Polish Radio's YouTube channel.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, polskieradio24.pl