The BBC is launching a Polish-language news service to reach new audiences with content they can trust.

From Tuesday, bbc.com/polska will deliver independent and impartial news in text and video, and on social channels, for Polish-speaking audiences.

The aim of the Polish news service is to counter a “storm of disinformation”, BBC News Global Director and Deputy CEO Jonathan Munro.

He said BBC News Polska will provide audiences with “content they can trust” in an era of “ever-growing attacks on media freedom, democracy and regional security”.

This is part of a BBC strategy to reach more audiences and “advance the case for democratic values”, Munro added.

BBC News Polska will use AI translation technology to provide the best of BBC journalism and original reporting, as well as regional angles and analysis produced by a team of Polish-speaking journalists.

The pilot initiative will come from existing budgets, but the BBC World Service would “need a long-term sustainable funding arrangement… to secure our global public service journalism for the future,” Munro said.

The new service will bring together the BBC’s best global and regional journalism, with “effective practices of working responsibly and innovatively with AI”, the BBC’s Deputy Global Director Fiona Crack said.

The BBC currently reaches about 5.1m people in Poland every week – around a fifth of the country’s adult population through the BBC News TV channel and global digital news platform BBC.com.