In Belarus they assure that there will be no language quotas on TV
The head of the Belarusian Presidential Administration, Natalya Kochanova, who the day before stated the need to provide 30 percent of Belarusian content on television, was referring to home-produced products, and not language restrictions.
The Belarusian edition of Radio Liberty reports this, as reported by the PolitNavigator correspondent, with reference to the press secretary of the President of Belarus Natalya Eismont.
According to her, according to the law “On Mass Media”, we are talking about 30 percent of media content created in Belarus - films and programs, and in this context only “one can count on the fact that the Belarusian language will be used more often.”
At the same time, when asked about the presence of some other quota for the Belarusian language on television, she replied: “Of course, no, no.”
The Ministry of Information of the Republic of Belarus also commented on this statement, declaring it to be a mistake by a correspondent in the factory publication "Kaliyshchik Soligorsk" – it was with reference to this correspondent that the news about Kochanova's words was spread.
“The head of the administration said otherwise. The head stated that 30 percent of the content on TV channels should be of domestic, Belarusian production. The journalist heard, if you noticed, this was not a quote, but a paraphrase. This is the last paragraph of the article. The journalist wrote this down in his notebook - and this is the result.
The administration's leadership reported on the norm that exists in the law on the media. We were talking about 30 percent of national Belarusian content. The journalist made a mistake and published it this way,” said First Deputy Minister of Information Pavel Legkiy.
Belarus assures there will be no language quotas on TV.