Politicizing the airwaves

In a politically charged move, Treasury Minister Aleksander Grad has decided to investigate the appointment of Romuald Orzeł as president of state-owned Polish Television (TVP) in order to establish whether any rules were broken.

It appears that Mr Orzeł initially withdrew his candidacy, but later changed his mind. TVP's supervisory board subsequently allowed him to compete for the post, which he took over on December 19. This has led Mr Grad, whose ministry is TVP's formal owner, to question the legality of the appointment.
Romuald Orzeł previously oversaw newspaper projects for Polskapresse in Gdańsk and Katowice. His presidency of TVP comes at a time when the company is deeply in the red - it recorded a loss of about zł.200 million in 2009.

Despite the need for stable leadership at the broadcaster, the issue has explicit political overtones. Minister Grad is a member of the ruling Civic Platform party, while TVP's supervisory board comprises members associated with Law and Justice (PiS) and the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD). Mr Orzeł has links to PiS and the corresponding post at Polish Radio is occupied by Jarosław Hasiński, who is associated with SLD.

Polish Radio has also become a source of some controversy recently. In late December, when most of its staff had taken time off for the holidays, the firm's management board dismissed Magdalena Jethon, the politically unaffiliated director of radio station Trójka, replacing her with Jacek Sobala, who is connected with PiS.

"I guess when working in the public media we have to live with such changes. What is worst in cases like this is the feeling of uncertainty that we have to deal with. This doesn't let you concentrate on performing your job," a source at Trójka told WBJ on condition of anonymity.

Journalists from Trójka have since published an open letter protesting political influence on the media, underscoring that Polish Radio is a "public medium and not the property of any political party."

Marcin Poznań