International broadcasting by a middle-size country: The case of Belsat TV from Poland to Belarus

Abstract

Poland, as all the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, was a target of Western international broadcasting before 1989. After the Velvet Revolution, the former receiver became communicator. Poland undertook efforts to promote democracy in Belarus, while reaching the audience in the country via a television station, basing these efforts on its own experiences from the communist times. Belarus, Poland’s eastern authoritarian neighbour, limits citizens’ access to information while controlling the state television and persecuting oppositional media and journalists. Thus, Belsat TV, financed by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Polish public service television, has been run as a station substituting for the domestic, Belarusian sources of information. The article sheds light on the motivation of the Polish government to launch alternative media for Belarus as well as on the political and media landscape in which these media operate. In the study, international broadcasting is understood as one of the components of Polish public diplomacy, used as a leverage to strengthen the position of the country as an actor in international communication.