New Leadership Named for TV Poland
Michael Hedges May 20, 2006
The new Polish government made good on its announced intentions to change the leadership at Telewizja Polska, Polish public television. The National Broadcasting Council named a new supervisory board, a new management board and new president, conforming to political party guidelines, within a week, finishing just in time for the annual TVP open house.
 Journalist and writer Bronislaw Wildstein was named TVP President by the newly formed supervisory board after “a surprisingly short debate,” said the Warsaw Business Journal. The supervisory board, members of the Law and Justice (PiS), Self-Defense and League of Polish Families (LPR) political parties, elected Slawomir Skrzypek as chairman. In addition to Wildstein, the new management board includes TVP’s public relations director Marcin Bochenek, Piotr Farfal, Anna Milewska and Slawomir Siwek.
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There is an old music industry expression - Too Hot Not to Cool Down. It’s meant as a warning to those hotter than hot new stars. It’s a concept not lost on media people in Poland. And the effect is being felt throughout the sector.
On 1 May 2004, in one giant stroke, 10 nations, 74 million people and more than 800 radio stations joined the European Union
The European Commission (EC) granted €2 million to an NGO and broadcaster consortium for rapid deployment of radio and television broadcasts to election eminent Belarus. The Commissioners contribution came the same day as the Council of Europe (CoE) debated neighborly advice to Belarus.
Nothing attracts broadcasters attention like a hot new market. Even though Belarus is home to Europe’s last major dictator, broadcasters are lined up to get their share of the audience.
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Wildstein replaces Jan Dworak, TVP’s President since February 2004. Dworak moved to depoliticize Polish public television and in the process drew criticism for competing with commercial TV channels and shedding one-third of TVP’s work-force. Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his twin brother Jaroslaw Kaczynski, also head of the PiS political party, were said to be “not happy” with Dworak, according to Gazeta Wyborcza, which also said the new TVP president would be “government dependent.” Long associated with film and television, Dworak had been jailed during the period of martial law in the early 1980’s.
Only two weeks earlier (April 26) the out-going supervisory board re-elected Dworak as president, just days before the National Broadcasting Council (KRRIT) was set to name the new TVP board.
A former Radio Free Europe correspondent in the 1980’s and leader of public station Radio Krakow in the 1990’s, Wildstein stirred controversy last year by publishing a list of names containing both collaborators with and targets of the communist-era secret police. Publication of “Wildstein’s List” got him fired as a columnist at Rzeczpospolita, but praise from the political right – now in power – which has demanded a purge of former communists and communist sympathizers.
TVP – before the recent management changes – announced a 10% ad price increase, expecting 2006 revenue 7% higher than 2005.
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