WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s state broadcaster on Saturday suspended a television journalist who reacted to the playing of John Lennon’s “Imagine” during the Olympic opening ceremony by calling it a “vision of communism.”
Broadcaster TVP issued a statement on Saturday saying journalist and sports commentator Przemyslaw Babiarz would not be allowed to make on-air comments during this summer’s Olympics.
Lennon’s song asks us to imagine a world without heaven or hell, without countries or possessions.
“Unfortunately, this is a communist vision,” Babiarz said at the grand opening ceremony along the Seine in Paris on Friday evening, a comment that immediately sparked controversy among Polish spectators.
“Mutual understanding, tolerance and reconciliation are not only the fundamental principles of the Olympic Games but also the basis of the guiding standards of the new Polish television. We will not agree to any violation of these,” TVP said in a statement announcing his suspension.
Poland’s state media has long been an ideological battleground, used as a mouthpiece for the right-wing populists who governed the country from 2015 to 2023. Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a centrist politician, A broad coalition government came to power. In December, they moved quickly to lift control of the airwaves.
Conservatives and their allies, still reeling from losing control of state media, denounced the decision, including conservative President Andrzej Duda and former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
Some commentators on the left said they felt the punishment was too harsh.
Poland was under a Soviet-imposed communist regime from the end of World War II until 1989, and that period still evokes great emotions.
Many Polish conservatives Blending LGBTQ+ themes with painting of the Last Supper during a grand ceremony on Friday.
