EU to broadcast ‘pro-democracy’ radio into Belarus

September 9th, 2005 | by aobaoill |

Today’s EU Observer drew attention to an issue of which I was previously unaware. Seemingly the EU is in the process of tendering for a broadcast operation to be aimed at Belarus. It appears that this would be part of a ‘public diplomacy’ effort aimed at fostering democracy in that country. The issue has gained attention from MEPs, and hence the Observer, because the terms of the tender might exclude Polish businesses from applying.
The EU has previously declared Belarus a dictatorship, and just recently awarded a €138,000 contract to Deutsche Welle to broadcast (via radio and internet) into Belarus. The latest dispute revolves around a larger contract, planned to be of the order of one million euro. The statement announcing the Deutsche Welle contract included a statement from Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner:

We wish to have in Belarus a neighbour that respects democratic values, the rule of law and human rights. It must fulfil its OSCE human rights obligations. I am working together with the EU Member States to closely monitor the human rights situation, and we are using all the means at our disposal to support those striving for the development of a democratic and pluralist society in Belarus. We are ready to take additional steps should the situation deteriorate further.

That statement also noted various other measures being undertaken by the EU including:

New funding for issues related to democratisation and civil society totalling €8.7 million is available, including via the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights and the Decentralised Cooperation Programme.

A Google search that led me to that statement also uncovered a rather interesting piece regarding Euronews’ plans for expansion. Euronews is an independent news channel, founded in 1993 by a consortium of EBU members that broadcasts news bulletins in 7 European languages. They now plan to expand to an extra four languages – all languages of non-EU states, specifically Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Turkish and Belarussian. One of the languages already broadcast by Euronews is Russian, and several of their consortium members are based in non-EU states, so this isn’t incredibly strange – but the fact that none of the consortium members are in Bulgaria, the Ukraine, Turkey, or Belarus, makes this a rather noteworthy development. Since all four countries are potential future EU members – some are already in negotiations to join, one can only wonder about political motivations in this development. Meanwhile, consortium members in Finland, Eygpt, Algeria and others are not getting broadcasts in their native languages….

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