Belarusian TV channels called Andzelika Borys “radical”, and Polish politicians “speculators”
- 23.02.2010, 16:59
State-run mass media continue covering the situation with the Union of Poles in Belarus in the propagandistic vein.
Thus, state-run STV channel has informed that “Ivyanets case”, which was a starting point for Polish mass media, that had overblown an all-European scandal related to alleged infringement of rights of one concrete ethnic minority at the territory of Belarus, has finished, to the great disgust of Polish mass media”.
According to the TV channel, “to depict just a few radicals, like Andzelika Borys, as fighters for interests of the Diaspora, after the Polish House in Ivyanets was officially found a property of Poles by the Belarusian court, is a bit strange. However, day after day Polish newspapers continue publishing devastating critiques, and some politicians are trying to evoke European reaction to a non-existent problem”.
Then the state TV channel offers opinions of so-called representatives of the public opinion of Poland, that present only one point of view, which is pleasing to the Belarusian authorities.
“Our press presents the situation in Belarus in the way as if the court seized the House in Ivyanets from Borys. But nobody says that it has been passed to a legal Polish organisation. It is obvious that journalists are performing the order of the authorities. But most Poles understand that something is wrong there. Many people express solidarity with the position of the Belarusian side,” said some Zbigniew Sekulski, presented as a Polish musician and community leader.
Workers of the STV channel are “scintillating witticisms”:
“A heavy-caliber anti-Belarusian campaign in Polish mass media is gaining momentum, but it loses addressees. More and more readers, listeners, viewers and users are coming to a completely different conclusion, which is contrary to the official Warsaw’s opinion. Many of them complain that information about Belarus in Poland is scarce, but is lavishly politicized”.
According to the TV channel, “common Poles understand that economic, cultural, interpersonal ties between citizens of Poland and Belarus have been offered up as a sacrifice to opportunistic political ambitions of the most unconstructive part of the Polish elite”.
Some Polish journalists, completely unknown, join the “displeased receivers of information”.
“Belarusians are portrayed as satraps with a knife in the mouth here. They allegedly victimize poor Poles. No matter what they do, everything is bad. And I would like to tell my colleagues to visit Belarus at least once. If journalists visited this country they would change their opinion,” Hanna Klos, an editor-in-chief of “Pomorski Economic Review” magazine is quoted.
And then STV reporters summarize: “Undoubtedly, many facts can be explained by the fact that elections will be held in Poland in autumn. But it is a pity that among other things, it means that the policy of trying to profit from the Belarusian-Polish topic chosen by some people would be almost certainly continued by them”.