MEP joins opposition's attack on TVP journalist: report

Rosati, who hails from the Civic Platform party, said that Rachoń would have been a “great propagandist during martial law”, which was imposed in Poland by the country's communist regime in 1981 and lasted until 1983.

Niezalezna.pl said Rachoń was quick to point out that Rosati had been a member of Poland’s communist party from 1966 to 1990.

Niezalezna.pl cited the Polish Institute of National Remembrance as saying that Rosati had been registered with the interior ministry as a candidate for a secret informer in 1968 and as an "operational contact" in 1978.

Rosati’s comments followed demands by three Polish opposition parties for Rachoń to be sacked from his job as host of a current-affairs programme on Polish Television, according to the managers of the broadcaster’s TAI news agency.

Members of the Civic Platform, Polish People’s Party and Modern party were outraged over Rachoń’s questions about allegations that an apartment belonging to Stanisław Gawłowski, a high-ranking member of the Civic Platform party, was being rented by a prostitute.

Jarosław Olechowski, acting Director of the Television News Agency, said the demand for Rachoń to be sacked was a “brutal, open attempt at political interference in the work of journalists in Poland.”

Olechowski added that the Woronicza 17 programme hosted by Rachoń “is evaluated by viewers every week. The popularity of this programme, compared with what rival stations offer, proves that Michał Rachoń is popular and enjoys the trust of viewers.”

“TVP reporters have also been repeatedly attacked, including physically,” and “vulgarly insulted” by supporters of opposition parties, Olechowski said, adding: “This is the first time that representatives of the three parties … have come forward with a direct demand that a specific journalist be fired because they do not like the questions he asks them”.

(vb/pk)

Source: niezalezna.pl