Piotr Farfał

Piotr Grzegorz Farfał (born 18 May 1978 in Głogów) is a Polish rightwing politician of the League of Polish Families and former President of the Polish national TV network TVP.[1]

Biography

Farfał studied law at the University of Szczecin and at the College of Banking in Wrocław. He was active in the nationalist All-Polish Youth and the National Revival of Poland.[2][3] As a student he wrote for the right-wing newspapers "Front" and "Szczerbiec" (The Sword).[1] However, when the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza described him as a "former neo-Nazi", Farfał sued, only to have his lawsuit thrown out by a local court.[4]

In May 2006 Farfał became a supervisory board member and vice-president of the state-run TV network TVP,[1] and was appointed president in December 2008. After assuming office he cancelled a contract financing the biopic The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, on the life of Irena Sendler who had helped save thousands of Jewish children during the Holocaust.[3] In protest the French-German TV network Arte suspended cooperation with TVP,[3] considering Farfał's views "incompatible with Arte’s philosophy based on intercultural exchange",[5] and stating that "the party that TVP's chairman is presently connected with does not share European values."[6]

A number of Polish public media figures, including film directors Agnieszka Holland and Andrzej Wajda, subsequently appealed to the public to boycott TVP on Polish Constitution day, 3 May 2009.[3][7][8]

Works
  • Myśleć po polsku ("Thinking Polish")[1]

References
  1. Robert Bosch Stiftung: Eintragung bei den Deutsch-Polnischen Medientagen
  2. Deutsche Welle: Former Polish Skinhead Appointed to High Public Post
  3. Deutschlandfunk Fernsehboykott am Nationalfeiertag
  4. taz.de Ex-Neonazi wird Fernseh-Chef
  5. Irishtimes.com Libertas to cut links with controversial Polish political party
  6. variety.com Dual peril for Poland's top pubcaster
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-09-03. Retrieved 2009-05-03.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. Die Welt Polen streiten über nationalkonservativen TV-Chef
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