TVP and Ministry Foreign Affairs of Poland signed agreement regarding the TVP Vilnius

On Thursday, Jacek Kurski, the chairman of TVP S.A. and Szymon Sękowski vel Sęk, the deputy head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed an agreement in Warsaw regarding cooperation in the creation and distribution of a new TVP Vilnius channel. The program is to start in May, and in a wider formula – probably in autumn.

During a press briefing, which took place at the headquarters of TVP at ul. Woronicza in Warsaw, Kurski stressed that the important task of public television is to “connect with Poles abroad”, which was channeled by TVP Polonia. “There are such groups of Poles, for whom TVP Polonia itself is not enough. Poles living in Lithuania are such a group. This is not a Polish minority, it is not a Polonia, they are Poles who have always lived in this area, and found themselves in territories or within other countries, because these borders have moved. They are where they have always been,” he stressed.

He added that for TVP “it has always been a challenge” to do “something more than just retransmit the TVP Polonia channel” for them. “This is where the idea of ​​creating a TVP Vilnius channel began. That is why in the year of the independence of Poland, in July 2018, we appointed a plenipotentiary of the board to coordinate activities aimed at the creation of TVP Vilnius . . . and today we go a step further. We bring about the institutionalization of this channel, financial security, long-term financial perspective based on public funds from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanks to cooperation with Minister Dworczyk of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister and – I hope – we’re carrying out work that will last for years, dozens of years, [and] will serve the needs of Poles living in Lithuania through TVP Vilnius “- said Kurski.