Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 6 June (BelTA) – Belarus-Russia large-scale cooperation should be reflected in the air of regional television channels of the two countries. Belarusian Information Minister Lilia Ananich made the relevant statement before the first festival of regional TV companies of Belarus and Russia began on 6 June, BelTA has learned.

Lilia Ananich said: “The most important thing for us is to see the reflection of the large-scale cooperation between our country and regions of the Russian Federation in the air of regional TV channels. We expect that this first project will not remain a pilot one, that year after year we will gain good, quality content about events unfolding in our country and in Russian regions.”

A contest of regional Belarusian and Russian TV projects was arranged prior to the festival. According to the Information Minister, it is very important for a new creative professional platform to appear so that Belarusian and Russian regional TV channels could compete for the title of the best project in Belarusian land. Lilia Ananich said it was possible that the festival may be held in Russia, too.

“The limitless sea of information should find its grateful viewers in the name of development of integration process, and, most importantly, in the name of Belarus, in the name of Russia, in the name of friendship between our nations,” said the Belarusian Information Minister.

The festival is scheduled to take place on 6-8 June and is supposed to gather representatives of 27 Belarusian and Russian regional TV companies from Gomel Oblast, Mogilev Oblast, Minsk Oblast, Brest Oblast, Vitebsk Oblast, Grodno Oblast, Kaliningrad Oblast, Kostroma Oblast, Leningrad Oblast, the cities of Sochi and Saint Petersburg, the Chechen Republic, and the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District. On 6 June participants of the festival visited the National Television and Radio Company of Belarus, the Belarusian State Museum of History of the Great Patriotic War. On 7 June the guests will take part in the panel session on mass media as an important factor in interregional cooperation, in forming the common space of humanitarian values during the third Forum of Regions of Belarus and Russia.

The festival has been organized by the Belarusian Information Ministry with assistance of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus, the Permanent Committee of the Union State of Belarus and Russia, the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Russian Telecommunication and Mass Communications Ministry, the National State Television and Radio Company of Belarus, the Minsk city television company STV, and the Journalism Institute of the Belarusian State University.