2024-09-13 21:56 update: 2024-09-13, 21:59
Fot. PAP/Radek Pietruszka
Poland has condemned Russia's decision to declare Belsat TV, a Poland-sponsored satellite television network, as "an undesirable organisation" in that country, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reported.
"Poland condemns the unjustified decision by the Russian authorities to designate Belsat TV as an 'undesirable organization' in Russia," the ministry wrote on the X platform on Friday.
"This is yet another example of Moscow's assault on free media and independent journalism," the ministry added.
Belsat is a Poland-sponsored satellite television network broadcasting in Belarusian, Russian, English, Ukrainian and Polish, and independently from Minsk.
The Russian Prosecutor-General's Office on September 13 declared the Belsat TV channel an "undesirable organisation." In a statement, the office accused Belsat TV of broadcasting programmes designed to discredit the internal and foreign policy of the Russian authorities, to create a negative image of Russia and to criticise the integration processes of the Union State of Russia and Belarus.
It also said that Belsat had published broadcasts about "Russia's unjustified aggression against Ukraine and the occupation of its territory by Russia."
Belarus banned Belsat as an extremist in 2021.
Almost 180 foreign and international non-governmental organisations have been banned in Russia as "undesirable." (PAP)
at/jch
