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Radio Nowy Świat under pressure from LGBT activists. President resigns

The fundraiser for a new media project, “Nowy Świat” internet radio, was announced by the group “Ratujmy Trójką”. The opening of the new radio was planned for June 26, but it changed due to the coronavirus infection of one of the associates. The radio finally launched on Friday, July 10. As emphasized in the introduction, politicians will not appear on the radio, and only experts will speak on current topics.

This Michał, instead of this Margot

Only a month has passed since the launch of the new project, and the radio has to deal with the crisis after the arrested LGBT activist Michał Sz. defined as a man. Michał Sz. considers herself a woman and calls herself the name Margot.

Outraged listeners strongly criticized the station on its Facebook profile, declaring that they would no longer listen to Radio Nowy Świat. They also intervened directly with the broadcasting authorities, writing e-mails on this matter.

President’s reaction

The founder and president of the radio station, Piotr Jedliński, responded to the attacks, saying that pressure from activists was against his freedom of perception of the world and freedom of the media.

“We are inundated with messages from Margot’s supporters, a non-binary person. (…) if Margot and the acolytes call so much for respect for freedom, why do they not respect the freedom of the media and mine as a person? Why are they trying to force me to see the world by forcing that I define someone whom I perceive as a man with feminine pronouns? (…) A massive attack is underway, to which I will not succumb (..) – wrote Jedliński, which provoked even more offensive reactions.

Jedliński, however, soon changed his entry to a much more balanced one. “Responding to the accusations caused by the grammatical form in which the RNW websites talked about Margot, my aim was to defend the independence of our radio also against public pressure. However, further actions of the authorities against Margot, especially her incarceration for men, with a scandalous comment from one of the politicians, significantly changed in my eyes the context of the whole matter. I did not intend and do not intend to defend the persecution of minorities by the authorities. I did not intend to join the persecutors. Without withdrawing from the belief in the value of being independent, in today’s conflict between persecutors and persecuted I am on the side of the persecuted ” – he wrote on Sunday.

Radio statement

On the same day in the evening, Radio Nowy Świat issued a separate statement.

“(…) The male-person form (” activist “) we used in relation to Margot was an unintentional error, which in no way defines the position of Radio Nowy Świat in relation to the above-mentioned people and events. Our team consists of people of various ages , beliefs, skin color and sexual orientation, and we are aware that diversity is the strength of Radio Nowy Świat. In this context, we would like to emphasize that Piotr Jedliński’s entry is his private opinion – we read in the statement, the authors of which emphasized their commitment to the idea of ​​objectivity and they asked the listeners for understanding.

Resignation

In turn, on Monday late in the evening it was announced that president Piotr Jedliński resigned from his position.

“We would like to inform you that Piotr Jedliński resigned from the position of the president of the @RTDW_Nowy_Swiat management company. Anna Krakowska, Piotr Jedliński, Krzysztof Łuszczewski have been signed” – we read in a short information posted on Twitter.


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