Urbanski
Poland: The Changes At Polish Television Criticised By Insiders And Outsiders
Warsaw, Poland February 28, 2007. The Monday night removal from his office and replacement of the head of Poland's public television by the Head of The Polish President's Chancellery has been criticised by not only opposition political parties, but also members of the President's brother's party, Law And Justice.
It is reported that the Head of Polish Television, Bronislaw Wildstein, appointed by the Law And Justice Party, was too liberal and too independent. His views of what should be in news differed from what the Government wanted in the news. So the Government wanted him replaced with someone who will make sure the news is more to the Government's liking. And the Government had only one man available to do the job. That person is Andrzej Urbanski.
Though the change is being praised by Poland's Prime Minister, there has been criticism from what might be considered unexpected quarters.
Of the two main evening television news channels that covered the change, the public news channel TVP 1 was remarkably more critical of the change and provided more coverage than the private news channel TVN. The journalists at TVP will be most affected. It had more extensive critical coverage of the change.
As for TVN, it showed a year 2002 Lech Kaczynski statement criticising a political appointment to TVP - "It is all about reinforcement Polish Public TV, because it is simple, propaganda instrument,and it is in the hands of present government." It followed the 2002 statement with a recorded segment from Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski - "Have not: Snaitkowski and Miazek come from politic's world?" The segment left some commentators feeling that TVP was going to be a propaganda tool for the current government.
Beyond the immediate news coverage, criticism came from within his own party.
The Minister of Culture, Kazimierz Michal Ujazdowski, quickly called it a mistake.
The head of the Polish government Radio and Television Board, Elzbieta Kruk , herself a political appointee of the current government, said that she could not identify with the change. Later on the private television station TVN 24 she expanded on her comments and said that the change was without merit.
Polish Senator Kazimierz Kutz, who is not affiliated with any political party, said the Polish government was like a sinking ship and the change was a government attempts to plug a hole.
Coalition political party Samoobrona and LPR both supported the change. They claim that they did not get enough coverage on the news. And that the news coverage that they did get was negative.
The change has the attention of the journalists and the media itself. And Urbanski is making some swift changes with the intent of "repairing the damage" that Wildstein did to public television.
More criticism is sure to follow as people are removed from their jobs and changes affect news coverage.
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