Councillors from the Education, Culture and Sport Committee met with the president of Telewizja Lokalna “Azart-Sat” and the owner of the cable network, the television station’s majority shareholder. The councillors wanted the station to provide people with information about the committee’s work. They argued that the most important disputes often take place during committee meetings rather than during council sessions. Telewizja Lokalna “Azart-Sat” president Alicja Burchardt defended herself by saying that journalists have a great deal of work and little time to prepare such reports. In response to the councillors’ argument that the news did not have to be broadcast on the same day, she said that, overall, “these are very important pieces of information, but not every resident necessarily needs to know about them.”
Several things emerged from the rather chaotic discussion. First, the councillors themselves are not sure what they expect. Hubert Prabucki and Janusz Kozioł, for example, would like the station to provide information from the councillors’ committee meetings. Ewa Ołenicz-Bernacka, however, would prefer the councillors not to be shown and not to have publicity made for them. “That would be the worst thing that could happen to us,” said Ołenicz. It therefore seems that the station should turn into a radio station in order to talk about the work of the city councillors without showing them.
Second, it is now clear that the councillors are unaware of their power. They decide whether the city should have any stake at all in the Telewizja Lokalna “Azart-Sat” company and, as the city spokesperson Agnieszka Gergont reports, they can influence the subjects of the programmes. It turned out that the councillors did not know this, and during yesterday’s meeting they were not even able to establish it.
Third, despite the mayor’s repeated declarations Piotra Romana that the station is independent of him, Alicja Burchardt, its president, admitted that it is the mayor who has been delegated to liaise with the station and is responsible for it.
Telewizja Lokalna “Azart-Sat” is a limited liability company. The city owns 40 percent of the shares; the rest belong to the cable network owner. Anyone who wants to watch Azart-Sat on television must pay two subscriptions: the first to the state, and the second for the cable service. Despite these fees, the City Hall, on behalf of all residents—including those who do not have and cannot have cable—pays the local television station for programmes. Approximately PLN 100,000 every year.
The councillors who attended Wednesday’s meeting were Eugeniusz Kowalski, Janusz Kozioł, Hubert Prabucki, Ewa Ołenicz-Bernacka and Mirosław Sakowski.
(KG report)