- October 28, 2011
- 249
Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs will support “Kurier Wileński”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Radosław Sikorski, ensured that by the end of the year he will have financially supported “Kurier Wileński”, the newspaper coming out in Vilnius. The only Polish daily newspaper was meant to stop coming out because of the difficult financial situation. It was a result of, among other things, reduction of grants given by the Senate of the Republic of Poland. The Senate takes care and supports financially Polish diaspora and Poles who live outside Poland, on behalf of the Republic of Poland.
Minister Sikorski reported, that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will provide deficient means, but the newspaper’s publishers will have to focus on the reorganisation of work at the same time. “It should become the time of creation of a repairing programme”, emphasized Radosław Sikorski.
The head of diplomacy highlighted the fact, that the situation of “Kurier Wileński” obliges to reflections about the system of spending the means allocated to support of Polish organisations outside Poland. In Radosław Sikorski’s opinion, the money should be disposed of by the diplomacy department, because it is consular service that has on the spot situation insight. “We, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, are in charge of implementation of policy concerning Polish diaspora, but the funds belong to someone else. I attain as much as I can, but it also requires making decisions.”, said Radosław Sikorski.
“Kurier Wileński’s” editorial board announced on its website, that after reducing the grant obtained from the Senate of the Republic of Poland, all the possible internal extra supplies have been used up. The job cuts and pay cuts were done and the decision of publishing the magazine edition in black and white version was made. Also the price of “Kurier” has risen. Since the following week the newspaper was supposed to come out only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. “Kurier” came out five days a week before that.
The Polish newspaper appeared in post-war history of Lithuania on 1st July, 1953 and came out as “Czerwony Sztandar” (“The Red Banner”). It belonged to the Lithuanian party, but at the same time it was the only Polish newspaper in USSR. During the political system transformation it still belonged to the Supreme Soviet (now: the Senate) of Lithuania. In the middle of 90’s it was denationalized and since several years his publisher is Zygmunt Klonowski.
On the basis of: IAR and personal information
http://www.wilnoteka.lt/pl/artykul/polskie-msz-wesprze-quotkurier-wilenskiquot
Tłumaczenie Agnieszka Hippe w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu Translated by Agnieszka Hippe within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu
