Journalist suspended at Olympics for calling John Lennon’s “Imagine” a “vision of communism”

Polish journalist and sports commentatorR Przemyslaw Babiarz was suspended from the Paris Olympics after calling John Lennon’s “Imagine” a “vision of communism.”

During the 2024 Olympic Games, the famous song – written by the late Beatle – was sung by French singer Juliette Armanet at the opening ceremony, which took place on Friday on the Seine in Paris.

During the broadcast, the Polish state broadcaster said: “Unfortunately, this is a vision of communism.”

The comments immediately triggered a reaction among viewers in Poland. abc news reported.

Warsaw public broadcaster TVP, where Babiarz works, later issued a statement clarifying that the well-known commentator would not make any further comments on the Summer Olympics in Paris.

Polish state television has suspended its chief commentator for the Olympic Games after he said in a broadcast that the song “Imagine”, played at the opening ceremony, represented a “communist vision”.

The decision was widely criticized, including by President Duda https://t.co/Yu2kIBNJ2T

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) July 27, 2024

“Mutual understanding, tolerance, reconciliation – these are not only the fundamental Olympic ideas, they also form the basis of the standards by which the new Telewizja Polska (Polish Television) is guided,” the statement said, according to ABC News.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk dismissed the previous TVP leadership after took strength in December and replaced it, Yahoo.com noted. Before Tusk’s term, the TVP was criticized as a mouthpiece of the national conservative PiS government,

Conservative President Andrzej Duda and former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki sharply criticized TVP’s move, the news agency said.

“The truth will defend itself! Its actions will be remembered and censorship will fail,” Morawiecki wrote on X.

ABC News noted that some left-wing commentators agreed that Babiarz’s punishment was too harsh.

Poland’s conservative politicians also criticized the participation of drag queens in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games and sharply criticized the event, which was seen as a parody of the Last Supper.

The Last Supper scene begins with an obese woman wearing a halo as Jesus, surrounded by drag queens as apostles, a severed head representing Marie Antoinette from the French Revolution, and drag queens dancing around children.

Following the reactions to the Olympics surrounding the anti-Christian scenes, Anne Descamps, a spokeswoman for the 2024 Paris Olympics, said at a press conference: “If anyone felt offended by this, we are sincerely sorry.”

“There was clearly never any intention to be disrespectful to any religious group. (The opening ceremony) was meant to celebrate the tolerance of the community,” Descamps told reporters. via Reuters“We believe that this goal has been achieved.”

Related: Paris Olympics opening ceremony includes drag parody of the Last Supper