The owner of the Polsat TV network has called on news broadcasters to maintain the truth.
In a statement published on the Polsat website, Zygmunt Solorz says that two year’s after the latest phase in Russia’s hostility against Ukraine began beyond Poland’s eastern border, television broadcasters have a special responsibility to “present reality truthfully”.
“These challenges – which are being discussed more and more openly – may pose threats to Poland as a state and our society. Counteracting these threats is currently the most important issue that should be the subject of national consent. Therefore, the most important thing for Poland is to maintain social peace, limit internal divisions and not create new ones.”
The majority shareholder in Polsat says media pluralism is a great value of a democratic society where different political preferences and views clash, and while he respects freedom of speech and journalistic independence, the values cannot constitute a pretext for using hate speech, inciting hostility towards each other, spreading xenophobic or racist views that violate the dignity of other people and lead to acts of aggression.
“It is in everyone’s interest to reduce the level of emotion in public debate. Therefore, I appeal to all broadcasters, as well as to the management of Telewizja Polsat news stations, that for the good of our recipients and the entire society, reliability, objectivity, respect for other people, substantive debate and the search for what can help us as unite society, not just divide it. Different views are the essence of democracy and freedom, but we must take care of them so that they are not used for anti-state purposes and causing social unrest.”
In his statement, Solorz may have been thinking of rival channel Telewizja Republika and commentators Jan Pietrzak and Marek Król, who in a new year broadcast spoke of “immigrant barracks” and “chipping or tattooing them. The broadcaster distanced itself from the views but has still faced an advertising boycott.
