Does Belsat Already Bother Authorities?

The administration of a new satellite TV channel Belsat has stated that the Belarusian side refused to sell to it belsat.by domain without explaining the reasons to the company that acted as a mediator. Belsat is a foreign TV channel that intends to broadcast information on Belarus without state control. 

Belsat applied to home.pl company with the request to by belsat.by for the website of the TV channel. The company found that the domain was free and assured that it would be bought for the TV channel. However, several days later home.pl told the channel administration that the Belarusian side refused to do it without any explanations. A representative of home.pl stated that it was the first such case during the whole existence of the company. 

In her interview with the RFE/RL the director of the Belsat TV channel Agneszka Romaszewska-Guzy commented: ‘I don’t understand this step. I think that in the case somebody refuses to sell the domain to us, they must think that some inappropriate information will be placed there. However, at present it is only a domain and there is nothing in its name that could revolt anybody. It bothers me, because in the case one can’t even register a domain – nothing good can be expected for freedom of speech in Belarus. If the name hinders them, the content will hinder even more.’ 

Agneszka Romaszewska stated that the TV channel will have a website anyway: ‘We have already registered belsat.eu and belsat.com domains. There are no problems with it and we will place our website there. We just wanted the TV channel to have a website on a Belarusian domain as well.’