Sarah Reinsford is the British public broadcaster’s Eastern Europe correspondent. At the beginning of his speech, he points out that the TVP building is surrounded by metal barriers and a large number of policemen who are “shaking in the snow”. She also wrote about the real battle for influence in Poland when the October elections ended “eight years of populist rule.”
The world is watching changes in Polish public media. The BBC journalist talked to both sides of the dispute
Her first interlocutor is Zbigniew Łuczyński, who was the host of “Uwaga!” for several years. on TVN. In December 2023, he joined Telewizja Polska, where he became one of the hosts of the “19.30” daily and news services on TVP Info. – It’s quite stressful. This is crazy! But our mission is very important to us: to tell the truth and be objective – he tells the journalist, who adds “he walks past the police to go on air with a package of scripts in one hand.”
The British woman goes on to report that “under the previous right-wing government, public television and radio channels became fiercely biased – some say this was dangerous” and briefly describes the events surrounding the changes in recent weeks. He draws attention to the symbolic change of the name of the main television daily TVP1 and the end of cooperation with the station’s former stars. He writes that only the technicians remain, who joke that “they are still here, like cockroaches.”
Then he talks to Paweł Płuska, who is the head of the “19:30” news program. As he emphasized, the idea was to “change everything.” – Because for the last eight years it has been a language of hatred and exclusion. I want to show that this is television open to everyone and all views will be presented here – and they are – he said in an interview with the BBC. However, the journalist also talked to a supporter of TVP from the times of the so-called good change, which she met at one of the protests.
There is no democracy anymore. They break the rules. They have their own rules, the British woman heard from one of the protesters.
She further added that during the demonstration “many primitive chants were heard, harshly aimed at Donald Tusk, portraying the Prime Minister as a ‘traitor’ and an alleged German ‘agent’.” He later reports that this type of insults have been promoted by state television in recent years and suggests that it was not without reason that the new government closed it so quickly.
She mentioned attacks on journalists of the new TVP and the popularity of TV Republika
The Briton also managed to talk to “19.30” reporter Blanka Dżugaj, whom she quoted after recalling Płuska’s statement that some PiS politicians refuse to talk to TVP journalists because they consider them “usurpers”. – There is a lot of hate and a lot of tears – the reporter pointed out. She goes on to say that someone has repeatedly called her a “pig” and a “government propagandist” on social media.
At the end of the article, she also mentioned television, where many stars of the old TVP, such as Danuta Holecka, moved to. “Part of the right-wing audience has already switched to Republika, a little-watched channel that has seen an increase in viewership. But TVP remains the main source of news for about a third of all Poles,” Rainsford wrote. As Płuska tells her at the end, the audience no longer hears phrases such as: “Tusk is a German” or “everyone else wants to devour, destroy and dismantle Poland.”
Everyone has their own views, but we don’t have to argue – quotes the boss at the end of ‘19.30’.
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.
