TVP has expanded the availability of its foreign-language broadcasts. Belsat TV, Slawa TV, and Vot Tak have just been included in the international Svoboda Satellite package managed by Reporters Without Borders. The initiative aims to ensure that audience has access to independent news in regions with limited media freedom.

The Svoboda package reaches more than 4.5 million households in Russia and around 800 thousand households in the occupied territories. On top of that, its coverage includes approximately 18 million households in Europe, also spanning North Africa and the Middle East countries.

The transfer of TVP’s channels to a new broadcasting platform translates into a significant improvement of their availability to West European audiences, including to multiple Belarusian, Ukrainian, and Russian communities. Through the use of a popular orbital location (13E) of the Hot Bird satellite, the broadcasts will be available to individual users and satellite television operators in many countries across Europe.

In the words of Director Michał Broniatowski of the TVP’s International Media Centre:

With TVP World’s satellite debut, we will be able to reach a much wider audience with a preference for traditional TV watching. The new viewers will gain access to news and programmes about Poland and Central and Eastern Europe prepared by the International Media Centre’s team. This is Europe’s only English-language news outlet in such a format. Access to trustworthy and exclusive information materials is particularly important in the current international situation and amid omnipresent disinformation and propaganda.

The Svoboda project was launched by Reporters Without Borders in response to curbing the freedom of speech and access to independent sources of information. The package consists of TV channels and radio stations created by independent journalists from Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia.