Left MP outraged by TVP decision. “Are you crazy?!”
Przemysław Babiarz’s comment caused a storm, but so did the decision to suspend him by TVP authorities. Voices of outrage can also be heard on the left side of the political scene. According to Left MP Anna Maria Żukowska, suspending the commentator is “overzealous and complete stupidity”.
Telewizja Polska has suspended a journalist and commentator for what he said during Friday’s opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games. “Mutual understanding, tolerance, reconciliation – these are not only the basic Olympic ideas, they are also the foundation of the standards that the new Telewizja Polska is guided by. There is no consent to violate them,” we read in a TVP statement.
Politicians were divided not only by Przemysław Babiarz’s words, but also by the decision of the TVP authorities. Voices of indignation can also be heard on the left side of the political scene. “Oh no, TVP Info, are you crazy?! We can argue about meanings on Twitter, but to suspend a journalist because of this?” – Left MP Anna Maria Żukowska wondered. “And Babiarz is neither a brother nor a matchmaker to me. I do not think that we have similar views, lifestyles or ethical attitudes. But that is not important,” Żukowska emphasized. She added that in her opinion, suspending Babiarz was “overzealous and complete stupidity”.
Morawiecki about Babiarz: You can’t drown out the truth!
The comments are decidedly harsher on the right. Especially from PiS politicians, who have defended Babiarz from the beginning. “You will not drown out the truth! The truth will defend itself! Your actions will be remembered, and censorship will fail,” wrote former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. “Editor Babiarz suspended because he expressed something that millions of Catholics (and not only!) feel,” Małgorzata Wasserman echoed. PiS MP Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk assessed that Poland “has been taken over by a censorship, neo-Bolshevik gang.”
“The suspension of editor Babiarz by TVP confirms once again that PO television is no different from PiS television. From one tyranny to another. The same contempt for pluralism and freedom of speech,” assessed Stanisław Tyszka, a recent MEP from the Confederation.
