New Belarusian TV News Program

(PRAGUE, Czech Republic) Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has launched a new half-hour television program aimed at Belarusians who have come to rely on RFE/RL for uncensored news and information about their country.

The new program, called "This Week with Svaboda (Liberty)," airs on the Warsaw-based BelSat satellite channel.  Hosted by RFE/RL's Belarusian Service Director, Alexander Lukashuk, and produced at RFE/RL headquarters in Prague, the show features a roundtable, debate-style format focusing on a wide range of social, political, and cultural issues in Belarus.

"Belarusians are hungry for an alternative to state-sponsoed media," says Lukashuk. "That's why our website is one of the most popular sites in the country. And now, with this satellite TV program, we have a new way to connect with audiences that enables us to provide free, uncensored information to even more people in Belarus."

In addition to the its popular interactive website and the new TV show, Radio Svaboda broadcasts six hours daily on short wave and cross-border medium wave. Belarus is the only country in Europe that does not permit local RFE/RL radio broadcasts.

"This Week with Svaboda" airs every Saturday in Belarus at 6:15pm local time and, starting September 22, will be repeated every Monday at 8:30pm.

RFE/RL's Belarus Service was established in 1954 as part of Radio Liberty's broadcasts to the former Soviet Union. With much of the independent media in Belarus silenced, the service remains one of the few media outlets accessible to Belarusians in their own language, providing timely, objective, and balanced information to residents of "Europe's last dictatorship."