Andrzej Rybałt, who heads Polish Radio’s External Service, also known as Radio Poland, said that “the Belarusian section has been reporting on the difficult political situation in Belarus for the past three decades every day.”
He added that recently the section "has been covering in detail the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border and a continuing migration crisis."
Rybałt told Polish Radio’s IAR news agency that the Belarusian section had been instrumental in “fostering dialogue between the Polish and Belarusian peoples.”
The "fact that Poles are so eager to support pro-democratic movements in Belarus is in part down to the Belarusian section and its coverage of events,” Rybałt said.
In 2020, when protests erupted following Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko’s widely discredited re-election, the Belarusian section launched special news bulletins in the Belarusian language on Polish Radio 1. They air three times a day.
As a result, Belarusians at home and abroad “have access to objective information about the main events taking place in the world, with a particular focus on Belarus,” Rybałt told the IAR news agency.
The Belarusian section broadcasts five hours of Belarusian-language programming a day, from news and commentary to interviews and reportage about Polish politics, society, business and culture, as well as various aspects of the situation in Belarus, from government policy to opposition protests, Poland's support for Belarusian democrats and the fate of the Polish community in that country.
The section also runs its own website detailing the current affairs of Poland and Belarus.
To mark its 30th anniversary, the Belarusian section has prepared a series of celebratory broadcasts, including archival recordings and interviews with figures such as former longtime section chief Nina Barszczewska.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR