Polish TV commentator suspended for comments during Olympic opening

Well-known Polish sports journalist Przemysław Babiarz was suspended after making a controversial remark on the radio during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on Friday.

Babiarz will not comment on any further broadcasts from Paris for the time being, public broadcaster TVP announced in Warsaw on Saturday.

When the French singer Juliette Armanet As Babiarz began singing John Lennon’s “Imagine” at Friday’s opening ceremony, he said: “A world without heaven, without nations and without religion. This is a vision of peace that is meant to touch. Unfortunately, it is the vision of communism.”

His statement met with criticism, especially on social media.

The TVP broadcaster distanced itself from Babiarz and stated: “Mutual understanding, tolerance, reconciliation – these are not only the fundamental Olympic ideas, they also form the basis for the standards that the new Telewizja Polska (Polish Television) is guided by.”

Poland’s government under centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk replaced the entire TVP management shortly after taking office last December. Critics previously viewed the broadcaster as a mouthpiece of the former national conservative PiS government.