Jacek Kurski, the new chairman of TVP (Telewizja Polska)

PiS has promised de-politization of polish media long ago. To this end, they placed Jacek Kurski as the new chairman of TVP (public polish television). He was appointed on 8th of January 2015.

He's a polish politician, journalist and has a degree in economy. He was a member of at least 7 political parties, in chronological order:

First he was involved with opposition during PRL era, and cooperated with a number of right-winged parties.
NSZZ Solidarność
Porozumienie Centrum (led by Jarosław Kaczyński; he led the Sejm campaign of PC in 1993).
Ruch Odbudowy Polski
Zjednoczenie Chrześcijańsko-Narodowe (ZChN) - removed for tampering with list of candidates
Prawo i Sprawiedliwość
Liga Polskich Rodzin
(he then joined PiS again)
Solidarna Polska (removed once he started cooperating with PiS)

Court history

In 2006 he accused Platforma Obywatelska (PO) of illegally funding parliamentary and presidential elections from money siphoned from PZU. The case failed to find anything and has been dropped. PO counter-sued for libel and won. Kurski was ordered to publicly apoligize and transfer 100,000 PLN to Caritas charity.

in 2007 he was found guilty of libel, throwing unsubstantiated accusations at Agora S.A. (the publisher of "Gazeta Wyborcza" etc.). The sentence was, again, public apology and 10k PLN to a charity. Higher order court supported the sentence, but Kurski willfully failed to comply with it. In particular he was saying "Gazeta Wyborcza" can destroy anyone using its submissive judges.

In 2005 he was removed from PiS for spreading rumors that grandfather of Donald Tusk (then polish Prime Minister, now president of European Council) volounteered to Wehrmacht and fought against Poles in WW2. Upon closer inspection, yes, the grandfather did serve in Wehrmacht, but there are indications he was drafted, especially his desertion and joining of Polskie Siły Zbrojne. The grandfather fought for Poland until the end of the war.

I sometimes wonder if PiS has a reverse vetting process - the nastier and more dishonest you are the more likely they are to appoint you to an important position.

no, neither of them has been convicted of libel....

This is an old management technique - appoint incompetent or dishonest people who owe their job to you (because no one else will have them) in order to ensure their loyalty.

Sometimes I think they're just playing an elaborate game of "Psych!" on the Polish public.

We're putting the younger generation like Duda and Szydlo in charge - Psych!

We're against former PZPR members being in government - Psych!

We're not going to obsess about Smolensk - Psych!

We'll create jobs - Psych!

In what way is Jacek Kurski nasty or dishonest? His bro on the other hand.

Because he said Tusk's grandfather served in Wehrmacht ! Oh wait :))))))))

Silly me, honest people are convicted of libel all the time.

As for nasty, there are the reports about the time he pulled down his drawers to prove he wasn't Jewish to some LPR types.... No sleaze there!


Actually he said the grandfather volunteered (rather than being drafted and deserting and then fighting with Polish forces the first chance he got).

Oh there are reports are there? Probably from the media sources who don't like him or PiS.

For start in the way that he has multiple convictions for libel.


Yes, more than a few, with the sources being then fellow LPR members.

It's not clear actually.


Interesting. When ? Which unit ?

Stuff Jacek Kurski said:

"I will be consistent in reclaiming for PiS institution after institution, company after company, office after office".
"I don't deny that in the domain of phraseology and portrayal of the world of politics I'm a receptive disciple of Jarosław Kaczyński".

"Whoever is going to raise a hand against (threaten) Jarosław Kaczyński should be aware Jacek Kurski will cut that hand off."

"It's not possible to vote differently than the leadership! Maybe bollocks like that can fly in the UK, (...) There must be discipline!" (about voting in parliament)

(82 words)

Long story short, he's a cynical, ruthless tool who claims he will do anything for dear leader Jarosław Kaczyński. I say "claims" because his history clearly shows he's happy to jump ship when wind blows the other way. He's been called a political mercenary, because when he was in LPR he was very critical of PiS, but then it stopped abruptly when he went from LPR to PiS, and Kurski was explicit about it. He doesn't have any strong views, just does what he considers beneficial for him. That's why ks. (priest) Krzysztof Niedałtowski was astonished to hear Kurski lecture people about morality. Speaking of morality, he doesn't pay alimony money for his 8 year old son.


That's not clear actually. According to Wikipedia he either deserted to join Polskie Siły Zbrojne, or was a prisoner of war in an allied camp. Wikipedia has links to interviews and other sources if you want to dig more. Either version is likely unless he suddenly changed his views. Józef Tusk was a member of Tajna Organizacja Wojskowa (Secret Military Organization), which prepared behind-the-lines operatives in the case of war. When Germans arrived at Gdańsk, he was assaulted in his house, reported the assault to the police, which got him arrested. He was called a polish activist and a polish fanatic, dangerous to the security of German State. His family was evicted. He was a forced laborer and made to construct a concentration camp, then imprisoned in another concentration camp... clearly, Nazi Germany disliked him and he had reasons to hate them.

When you look at it that way, he might actually be the ideal person for the unelected dictator, Dear Leader Chairman Kaczynski, to appoint. The direction of the wind is certainly already changing, so Kurski will no doubt soon be supporting somebody other than Dear Leader Chairman Kaczynski.


So, no there's no question at all that he's a scumbag. Just goes to show that the claims of the PISed-up that they support families is as untrue as their claim that they oppose former commies.

Source ?


You mean the KOD hippie ?

Family values, a la PiS!

I mean anybody who refuses to make child support payments, such as Kurski.
If you show me a KOD member who refuses to make child support payments, I will very happily describe that person as a scumbag too.


It really isn't clear what you're trying to say there; could you be slightly more clear in what you're trying to say?

The hippie Kijowski, so called leader of so called KOD.

Back after the presidential TV debate between Donald Tusk and Lech Kaczyński, Donald asked Lech:
- Why do you keep this son of a b. ?
- He might be a son of a b., but I prefer to have him on my side.

Who in KOD calls him the leader? I know that your fellow PISed-up fanatics would like him to be the leader, as you think he's easy to attack.

You are talking about a man whose children are 22, 20 and 17 and who didn't pay the full amount of child support when he was unemployed. I'm talking about a man who has an eight-year old son and who for the last five years has been earning 25,000zl a month. Kijowski does not refuse to pay child support, he didn't pay it when he didn't have any money to pay it with and says he'll pay back the debt: that is not the mark of a scumbag. Kurski just refuses to pay despite having more than enough money to pay it: that is the mark of a scumbag. But of course it's no surprise to see you siding with and making excuses for a scumbag.


I guess he was as stupid as his brother is, he also couldn't see that people like Kurski are only ever really on one side: their own.

Indeed, it's pretty clear that the PiS strategy thus far has been to appoint incompetent/dishonest/inexperienced people or ex-PZPR members to prominent positions - all of them can be easily controlled and replaced if needs be, and none of them will have the brains or the talent to mount any serious opposition to Kaczyński. It means that Kaczyński can control everything easily and in his vision.

Kurski is just another in a long line of puppets.

washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/01/12/how-polands-controversial-new-media-law-could-effect-eurovision-europes-campy-song-contest

Funniest thing I've seen in a while. As if PiS will go '"out of the Eurovision? That's too far. Okay we'll do whatever you want."

This more or less sums it up perfectly.

The worst issue isn't the political damage caused by appointments like this, but the material and spiritual damage to society that their incompetence and venality will invariably cause.

Except, as much as I despise Eurovision, nobody as ever left it. Germany, UK pretty much hate it. So Polands ejection would emphasise its isolation .

Alert doomsayer speaking about some isolation of Poland. Hehe. Good joke. Next week you gonna tell us about a war between Poland and EU. So funny.

You're mistaking the "isolation of Poland" with the entirely justifiable isolation of the present unpopular minority regime. The PRL wasn't Poland; it was just a regime that nobody liked. It's the same with this one.

Their attempts to manipulate the media are much the same. Nobody believes it and both regimes were fortunately temporary.

One of best known quotes of Jacek Kurski is:


(The Wehrmacht thing was a sham, but we're sticking with it because dim people will buy it.)

He said that just before an interview in radio TokFM. Before they went on air, they had a conversation (Jacek Kurski + 4 journalists: Tomasz Lis, Wiesław Władyka, Katarzyna Kolenda-Zaleska and Tomasz Wołek). Tomasz Lis asked Jacek Kurski why he still insists (prime minister's) Donald Tusk's grandfather volounteered to Wehrmacht. He was bragging about it as if it was some great example of social engineering.

Made up by "hyena of the year" Lis. Another example of your manipulations.

The issue for me is not really whether he pays child support, or some slurs he made in the past - I don't care and I don't expect him to be a saint.

Surely the issue is whether he has any experience in running a TV station - answer is no. Alternatively does he have any experience running a large organization - again the answer is no.

I'm a conservative but of course I accept that people in the media are left leaning and like drinking flat white - its obvious if you just think back to the people at school and college who wanted to do that kind of stuff. I don't especially get bothered by that.

I see this morning that Beata Tadla has been fired - no idea why but surely removing a young mum from her job is not a great signal of how to behave.

The other 3 witnesses are Wołek, Kolenda-Zalewska and Władyka.

For me the issue is that Kurski is an extremely biased and cynical man. He's been proven to make stuff up to blacken political opponents.

Exactly and this pattern is being repeated by them throughout public life. Do you remember the mess with Wildstein and TVP last time they were briefly in office?

That and the attempt to politicise the KRRiT.

Already, we can see the hand of Kurski with TVP news.

Today, TVP1 dedicated an entire...7 seconds to the news that S&P has downgraded the country's credit rating. 7 seconds. Meanwhile, they dedicated significant time to Duda's CHF law.

It shows that it already is TVPiS and that unfavourable news will simply be buried and barely mentioned.

Unfotrunately Kurski is one of the most detrimental politicians in Poland today - topped only by Ziobro and the chief propaganda minister Macierewicz.

@delph

Oh no, so TVP might not be as anti PiS as it was when PO were in charge. You still have TVN and Polsat to tell you what you want to hear.

@Jardinero

What a load of nonsense.