Friedreich Pleitgen
2024-07-28 00:22:06 UTC
WARSAW, Poland (AP) The Polish state broadcaster on Saturday suspended a
television journalist who, during the Olympic Games opening ceremony,
reacted to a performance of John Lennons Imagine by saying it was a
vision of communism.
TVP, the broadcaster, issued a statement Saturday saying that the
journalist and sports commentator, Przemyslaw Babiarz, would not be
allowed to comment on air anymore during this summers Games.
Lennons song asks to imagine no heaven or hell, no countries, and no
possessions.
This is a vision of communism, unfortunately, Babiarz said during the
grand opening ceremony along the Seine River in Paris on Friday evening
comments that immediately triggered controversy for those watching in
Poland.
TVP said in its statement announcing his suspension: "Mutual
understanding, tolerance, reconciliation these are not only the basic
ideas of the Olympics, they are also the foundation of the standards that
guide the new Polish Television. There is no consent to violate them.
State media has been an ideological battleground in Poland for years. It
was used as a mouthpiece by the right-wing populists who governed Poland
from 2015-23. Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a centrist politician whose
broad coalition took power in December, acted quickly to remove their
control of the airwaves.
Conservatives and their allies still reeling from their loss of control of
state media denounced the decision, among them conservative President
Andrzej Duda and former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
The truth will defend itself! Your actions will be remembered and
censorship will fail," Morawiecki wrote on X.
Some commentators on the political left said they felt the punishment was
too harsh.
Poland was under Soviet-imposed communist rule from the end of World War
II until 1989, an era that still evokes great emotions.
Many of the same Polish conservatives also condemned the mixing of LGBTQ+
themes with a Last Supper tableau during Friday's grand ceremony.
https://news.yahoo.com/news/polish-journalist-suspended-calling-imagine-
192822016.html
television journalist who, during the Olympic Games opening ceremony,
reacted to a performance of John Lennons Imagine by saying it was a
vision of communism.
TVP, the broadcaster, issued a statement Saturday saying that the
journalist and sports commentator, Przemyslaw Babiarz, would not be
allowed to comment on air anymore during this summers Games.
Lennons song asks to imagine no heaven or hell, no countries, and no
possessions.
This is a vision of communism, unfortunately, Babiarz said during the
grand opening ceremony along the Seine River in Paris on Friday evening
comments that immediately triggered controversy for those watching in
Poland.
TVP said in its statement announcing his suspension: "Mutual
understanding, tolerance, reconciliation these are not only the basic
ideas of the Olympics, they are also the foundation of the standards that
guide the new Polish Television. There is no consent to violate them.
State media has been an ideological battleground in Poland for years. It
was used as a mouthpiece by the right-wing populists who governed Poland
from 2015-23. Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a centrist politician whose
broad coalition took power in December, acted quickly to remove their
control of the airwaves.
Conservatives and their allies still reeling from their loss of control of
state media denounced the decision, among them conservative President
Andrzej Duda and former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
The truth will defend itself! Your actions will be remembered and
censorship will fail," Morawiecki wrote on X.
Some commentators on the political left said they felt the punishment was
too harsh.
Poland was under Soviet-imposed communist rule from the end of World War
II until 1989, an era that still evokes great emotions.
Many of the same Polish conservatives also condemned the mixing of LGBTQ+
themes with a Last Supper tableau during Friday's grand ceremony.
https://news.yahoo.com/news/polish-journalist-suspended-calling-imagine-
192822016.html