We watched the protest in defense of TVP. “I will always support what is Polish”
In defense of TVP, a crowd of protesters gathered in front of the Polish Television building in Warsaw on Thursday. Our reporter also went there and asked the participants of the meeting about their motivations and assessment of the objectivity of the public media in recent years.
During the demonstration in defense of TVP at Plac Powstańców Warszawy, the Wprost.pl reporter asked everyone one question: why they decided to come to this event and take part in the protest. – Because there is no democracy without free media – he was told at the very beginning. He also witnessed the timid performance of the anthem and the violent tearing down of the eight-star flag – the rally participants had no patience with the few counter-demonstrators.
Why did people come to the protest in defense of TVP?
– Because they want to take away our Polish media. And that’s it. I have nothing more to say. I will always support what is Polish. No one has the right to take this away from us, said one of the event participants. However, have the public media been objective in recent years? She did not answer this question directly. – They suited me. I very much support these media and I am a Catholic, a patriot and I want to become one. I love our Polish nation and I love Poland, she said.
– This is an obligation. There is no need to decide. You have to go defend your homeland. Wherever possible and in what aspect, emphasized the man present at the demonstration. We also recorded a fragment of the statement by Tomasz Sakiewicz, editor-in-chief of “Gazeta Polska”, Telewizja Republika and a frequent guest of TVP programs during the PiS government.
– This is what the attack on television is all about. Every totalitarian power begins by interrupting communications and attacking the media. This authority was trained by Jaruzelski’s people. These faces that are out in the open are not the people who are really in charge. The people of Moscow rule. That is why those who worked in the FSB today take up leadership of the secret services. And they will attack the media. That is why the special services officer was appointed minister of culture, who is to pacify the media, said Sakiewicz.
Polish Television under the new government will be… German?
Samuel Pereira, deputy director of the Television Information Agency and manager of TVP Info, was also present. – Media is diversity. This pluralism did not exist before 2015. All stations were one TVN, one broadcast. Poles had no choice, he argued. He would certainly be happy with the words of a protest participant who argued that she came because of TVP and journalists. – We trust them and we only want them. We don’t want this German propaganda. I am very afraid and we are dissatisfied. We can’t sleep at night, she emphasized.
– Because they want to introduce the German and Brussels order to Poland. We’ve had enough of this, it’s over. We’ve had enough. We won’t allow the media to be false, yes. The resort’s television is on Wiertnicza Street, one is enough. Olejnikowa, Stokrotka and others. That’s enough, said the protesting man.
– Despair takes over. How much longer will I stand for this homeland? He defended her. In “Solidarity” I was within arm’s reach, they would have grabbed me already. If I didn’t make it in time, they would have beaten me because I was throwing spike strips under armored vehicles, another man recalled. – And after 8 years I still have to defend my homeland. After these 8 years of PiS – he added, while his companion wiped his eyes with a handkerchief.
Reporter Piotr Barejka asked him whether he assumed that the new authorities could introduce changes for the better at TVP. – How’s that for the better? As long as Hitler, son of Poles, rules, things will never be good. For 1000 years, the Germans, earlier than the Russians, had been displacing Poland and pushing eastwards. And now they are trying to take over the western lands from Poland. This is the Germans’ goal. It was an eternal enemy, it will never be a friend. Like the world, a German will not be a brother to a Pole – argued the oppositionist.
“I have never watched TVN in my life. They lie”
– It’s very important to me because I watch TV. I can have the right to choose, but I watch Polish television, said another lady. He expects that after the change of government, TVP will look “like it did 8 years ago.” She also expressed satisfaction with the turnout. – It was announced every day, so I think the turnout is high – she said.
– Do you know what I associate public with? I don’t want public. I like this television: there is One, Drójka, TVP Info, there is Kultura, there are Serials. And that suits me. I have never watched TVN in my life. They lie, they don’t tell the truth, another woman repeated. – She was objective because I watch it. Only TVN did not report the truth, she maintained.
