REM: TVP report “Dark Quarters: Za³êże” violates the rules of ethics and “offends the intelligence of viewers”

Soon after the report was broadcast, the president of Katowice, Marcin Krupa, wrote in social media (original spelling):

Creating such an image of the district is an EMERGENCY MANIPULATION that harms ALL the residents who have been working hard together with the city for many years to show that the stereotypes about this district are not true.

Outrage was also expressed by many residents, for example with “Gazeta Wyborcza”. The president decided to submit a complaint to the Media Ethics Council regarding the report, which was shown on October 24 last year. He claimed that the authors selected the material for the thesis they had assumed in advance and showed the inhabitants of the district in a “false, stigmatizing and unfair way”. He also pointed out that the material “contains out of context and manipulated statements of several people appearing in the reportage”.

REM: The authors of the reportage violated the rules of truth, objectivity and the priority of the recipient’s good

The president of Katowice accused both the author of the report, Zbigniew Górniak, and its producer, Kacper Kowalski and the broadcaster, TVP, of violating the rules of ethics. REM members agreed with his opinion. In the official reply to the complaint:

In the opinion of REM TVP, as the broadcaster of the material and the persons mentioned in the complaint, violated the principles of truth, objectivity and priority of the recipient’s interests, enshrined in the Media Ethics Charter, which stipulates that the fundamental rights of readers, viewers and listeners override the interests of editorial staff, journalists, publishers, producers and broadcasters .

REM members emphasize that this is the second time this has happened. “The conclusions of REM were no different in response to the complaint of Jacek Sutryk, the president of Wrocław, concerning the reportage from the series ‘Dark Quarters’ about the Wrocław suburb of Oławskie,” writes REM.

Further in the letter you can read:

Not only the districts are the subject of the choice made by TVP, but also the cities themselves – almost exclusively those whose presidents do not represent the party ruling in Poland or do not declare themselves to be its supporters. This, according to REM, is a manifestation of another thesis suggested by the authors of this series of reports and offending the intelligence of TVP viewers – that dark neighborhoods are where PiS does not rule.