Belta in Polish

Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTA) opens its Polish-language version portal information. This Belarusian state media entity intends to scope not only the Polish number in Belarus, but besides readers outside the borders of the republic.

BeltA is the oldest Belarusian news agency to start in 1918. Under the current name, it has functioned with a short break since 1931.

Growing numbers

Director-General of the Agency, Irina Akułowicz, emphasisesthat Belty news portals have long been published in abroad languages, including English, German, Spanish and Chinese. It is besides developed channel on YouTube, which has already gained over 1.4 million subscribers. You can watch on it broadcasts with subtitles in abroad languages; most of the material is published in 1 of the state languages in Belarus in Russian.

The website of the Belarusian information agency is 1 of the most popular portals of this kind in Russian. So far, according to the available statistics, around 1% of the netizens utilizing it came from Poland. Now this number can increase thanks to the launch of the edition of the Polish language portal.

Opening to Poles

"The Polish version of the BelTA portal creates opportunities to inform our neighbours, average Poles, about the issues that their authorities hide from them. The Belarusians are in favour of peace, they don't want war, and they're not going to attack anyone. We would like Belarusians and Poles to come to each another in guests, especially due to the fact that many people are connected with household ties. We are in favour of tourism – there are so many interesting places in our countries. We are in favour of business contacts, due to the fact that – erstwhile we are neighbours – we cannot carry out commercial wars. I sincerely believe that work on publishing news in Polish, as well as the visa-free movement introduced by Belarusians for Poles, will aid them to get to know our country more and more, learn about the initiatives of president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko" said the head of the agency.

The Polish-language side of Belty publishes current information from Belarus and abroad, photos and reports showing different aspects of life and Belarusian news, as well as statements by president Alexander Lukashenko.

MP