Politicians of the united opposition entered the elections under many slogans. One of them was the depoliticization of Telewizja Polska, which under the PiS government became a propaganda mouthpiece for one party. TVP Info invited mainly those associated with the government as experts, and only PiS politicians commented on current events.
Before the presidential elections, “” focused almost exclusively on the upcoming elections and yes, they showed Andrzej Duda and Rafał Trzaskowski equally, but only one of them had only positive materials. Trzaskowski did not produce a single material that could be described as at least neutral. Before the last parliamentary elections, the Confederation had no access to TVP at all, because its poll results weakened PiS. Since Jacek Kurski took over at TVP in 2016, Telewizja Polska has ceased to be for everyone. This was supposed to change after the 2023 elections.
“7.30” was supposed to show the entire spectrum of all political options
The refreshed formula of the main evening news program concerned not only the change of hosts and decorations. The “” promised “clean water” instead of “propaganda soup”. And it would probably have been partially successful if not for PiS politicians ignoring this station.
A social media profile monitoring “Wiadomości” during the PiS era – “I watch News because I can’t afford stimulants” – decided to check what the issue of pluralism looks like today. If the main edition of “19.30” can still retain polyphony thanks to the broadcast of PiS politicians’ statements from press conferences, the formula of “Guest 19.30” requires – well – a guest. And this is where the problem begins, because for almost the entire month since “Gość 19.30” has been on the air, no PiS politician has reached the studio at Woronicza.
This is undoubtedly part of PiS’s political fight against changes in the public media, which the party does not accept. In the initial phase of changes, “19.30” reporters managed to record politicians of this party refusing to comment on the program several times. Once, Jarosław Sellin broke down and spoke briefly to the camera. Due to the different formula of the evening “Guest 7.30 p.m.”, viewers will not be able to show the MPs running away from the reporter. But the problem is not only with PiS.
This quiet voice in “19.30” is the voice of the Left and the Confederation
Although “19.30” also invites independent experts to the 1:1 program (one guest and one host), it is dominated by representatives of the Civic Coalition and Third Way. MPs from the Confederation and the Left were invited only ONCE. If the guests were supposed to represent more or less the results of the last parliamentary elections, even with an optimistic approach, such a proportion in relation to the results of the Left and the Confederation is greatly disturbed. The blame for this lies mainly with the overrepresentation of the Civic Coalition and the complete absence of PiS. Nevertheless, pluralism would be served by at least slightly limiting the main winners in favor of strengthening the voices of the “starters”.
The PiS boycott of TVP also ultimately harms the politicians themselves more. TVP is the station with the largest coverage in Poland – which Jacek Kurski knew well. Cutting off access to such communication with your message is counterproductive.
Until the publication of this text, TVP has not responded to questions about the guests invited to the studio. However, we know from unofficial sources that there are still attempts to invite PiS politicians despite the party’s boycott of TVP.
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.
