{"id":72486,"date":"2024-03-12T18:56:05","date_gmt":"2024-03-12T15:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/72486\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","slug":"ceo-of-polish-tv-station-promoting-democracy-in-belarus-dismissed","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/72486\/","title":{"rendered":"CEO of Polish TV station promoting democracy in Belarus dismissed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n (Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy on Facebook)<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

March 12, Pozirk.<\/em><\/strong> Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy has been sacked as the CEO of Belsat<\/em>, Poland’s Belarusian television station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I was sacked after 17 years with Belsat<\/em> and 32 years with TVP<\/em>,” Romaszewska-Guzy said on Facebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belsat<\/em>‘s budget will be slashed by 47 percent, and the station will be split in two, she said. Its programs in Russian would probably be separated from the programs in Belarusian and given “a different button,” she said, calling it a “big mistake.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belsat<\/em> confirmed the dismissal in its Telegram channel, without announcing a replacement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romaszewska-Guzy took the helm of Belsat<\/em> in December 2007, soon after it had been established as part of the public service broadcaster TVP<\/em>. She authored the concept of the whole project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A TVP<\/em> council dismissed her in March 2009, but she was soon reinstated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romaszewska-Guzy was born in Warsaw on January 15, 1962. In 1987, she graduated from the Institute of History, University of Warsaw. Writing her thesis in the United States, she interned at The Washington Times<\/em>, The Washington Post<\/em>, and The New Republic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She started cooperating with TVP<\/em> in 1992. She managed reporters’ work, was the deputy head of the main news program “Wiadomo\u015bci,” a production editor, and an international correspondent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was also the acting head of Polonia<\/em>, TVP<\/em>‘s another television channel, and the head of the TVP<\/em> bureau in Bia\u0142ystok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 2024, Romaszewska-Guzy said on Facebook that her working conditions worsened after Poles had elected a new government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said funding was extended for only one month, while 80 percent of the staff who had fled Belarus had no savings, and 17 people who had cooperated with the station were in Belarusian prisons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On February 7, the Polish foreign ministry spokesman, Pawe\u0142 Wro\u0144ski, said the government planned to keep Belsat<\/em> afloat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the ministry, the station is extremely important for Poland as a symbol of its Eastern policy, which is directed at promoting democracy in the former Soviet republics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On March 8, the CEO announced that Belsat<\/em>‘s annual budget would be cut by 46 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to her, in 2023 the budget was 74 million zlotys (about $18.5 million): the foreign ministry contributed $63 million, and TVP<\/em> put in 11 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, the ministry will give $40 million and TVP<\/em> will give nothing because it has nothing, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romaszewska-Guzy said that no organization can survive a 50-percent budget cut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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