Due to the occupation of the building at Plac Powstańców by PiS MPs and former employees of Telewizja Polska, new journalists and reporters creating the “19:30” program have an additional difficulty. It was in the old PAST building that “Wiadomości” was previously produced – the modernized studio had access to everything needed to create a live program at 7:30 p.m. For the creators of “19:30” this is a closed area for now – they have to work from Woronicza, from the TVP headquarters.
And this is just one of the many problems faced by the new team of the main news program of Polish Television. After the Minister of Culture, Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, dismissed the management boards and presidents of public media and replaced them with new Supervisory Boards, which appointed new presidents, the national media divided into two camps. The past does not recognize the new TVP, the new TVP does not recognize the old one. The newly hired journalists for “7:30 p.m.” were not sure until the end whether the first broadcast of the program would take place at all.
“7:30 p.m.” Journalists work in difficult conditions
In an interview with Wirtualna Polska, the creators of the materials for “19:30” talked about the behind-the-scenes of the creation of the first episode of their news program. Since the occupied building has access to all archival materials and those that are “flowing” from regional editorial offices on an ongoing basis, without access to them, editors and journalists must obtain all the recordings themselves. This generates additional problems – sometimes the assembly of materials takes forever, and not everything is timed:
Technical problems only increase the stress, especially when access to the necessary materials is obtained only around 7:00 p.m. – said Witold Tabaka, one of the reporters and creators of materials for “7:30”.
The first Thursday edition of “19:30” from almost two weeks ago was a huge question mark. The editorial team had at their disposal a much poorer TVP Sport studio, all materials were prepared hastily. The team is also threatened with sabotage – the old TVP authorities and some of its employees do not agree with the political decisions and are constantly trying to regain control of the ship called Telewizja Polska. Not only the building is occupied, but also some social media channels. In the era of universal digitization, it doesn’t take much for some material to be “accidentally” deleted. One of the employees, , said that reporters brought materials for the first edition of 19:30 on pendrives for security reasons. All these elements only add to stress, which was especially visible during the first release of “7:30”:
After this first program, even our editorial manager, Paweł Płuska, could not hide his emotion. He was so stressed out that he had to vent and got emotional about the college we had after the release. We all felt the same – says Witold Tabaka.
“7:30” is supposed to be like the BBC – impartial, apolitical
The reset on Polish Television was announced by the victorious October 15 Coalition from the moment the election campaign was announced. During the PiS era, TVP became a one-sided mouthpiece of only one party. In 2016, the previous team of journalists and presenters were removed or resigned, and a whole host of people were hired in their place, who became famous in the following years for the greatest politicization of national media news programs since the times of the Polish People’s Republic. Currently, there is a debate about their future shape, but it is already clear what the director of “19:30” wants to be based on.
Paweł Płuska clearly said that it was to be a professional and non-political project that was to herald a new opening in public media. They want us to follow the example of the BBC, which can be seen, for example, in the opening credits of the program. So, aesthetically, the British model will be replicated, but whether it will also succeed intellectually will be left to be seen – says one of the new TVP employees in an interview with Kultura.Gazeta.pl.
who were elected to the Sejm in the last elections. There are no clear preferences when it comes to favoring any political formation. Also, the topics discussed in the program do not directly indicate unilateral acceptance or opposition on the part of the editors.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
