A Digest of Political, Economic, Cultural and Historical News from Poland

Published: December 8, 2015

 

Mariusz Pilis, former Director of TVP Info, posted a letter on Facebook which he received from – as he says – a credible journalist. The letter contains a brief history of the friendship of the author of a recent CNN program about Poland, Mr. Fareed Zakaria, with Poland’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Radosław (Radek) Sikorski. According to the author of the letter, both gentlemen have been good friends.

 

During the program on CNN entitled "GPS," journalist Fareed Zakaria expresses his concern with the future of Poland, quoting, inter alia, the opinions of Prof. Andrzej Zoll on the confusion surrounding the Constitutional Tribunal. He also compared the events in Warsaw to those in Hungary under the Government of Mr. Viktor Orban.  “The events in Poland have taken a very bad turn, since power in the country has been taken over by the right-wing Law and Justice Party (PiS), which launched a great, instant power take over, leading to comparisons with a coup”, stated Zakaria.

 

The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already reacted to this program, writing that it presents a false and one-sided version on the current situation in Poland, and has no basis in fact. The Ministry will request an opportunity from CNN to present its position to the allegations presented in the Zakaria's broadcast.

 

Soon after the CNN broadcast, Mr. Mariusz Pilis published a letter, which addressed the fact that a good friend of this American journalist is Radoslaw Sikorski. The beginning of their friendship goes back to 1996, during the time when Sikorski published his article in Foreign Affairs, whose Editor-in-Chief was Mr. Fareed Zakaria.

 

Subsequently, for many years, Zakaria conducted interviews with the former Minister of Foreign Affairs. One of them (during the period 2002-2005) can be found on the New Atlantic Initiative’s website. Later, Recently Sikroski was a frequent guest on Zakaria’s programs, for example, only in 2014, you can easily find three of their recorded meetings. Sikorski spoke about Ukraine during that time, sanctions against Russia or Russia's situation in the Council of Europe.

 

Pilis writes, it’s true, that these frequent interviews "don’t prove anything," but points out that if the latest CNN program proves to have been inspired by Sikorski, "then the figure from CNN should lose his job because he is not a journalist."

 

Source: wiadomosci.wp.pl
Translation: JC
Photo: Twitter