Polish Foreign Ministry lodges BBC complaint

In a letter to the controller of BBC Two and BBC Four, Kim Shillinglaw, Polish foreign ministry spokesman Artur Dmochowski wrote that “the report ‘Is Poland being Putinised?’ presented the current political situation in Poland in a superficial and distorted manner, far from the journalistic merits expected from the BBC and in apparent contradiction to some of the broadcaster’s own editorial guidelines.”

Among the issues raised was the fact that Maya Rostowski was appointed to take part in the production of a news item. This fact raised “deep concerns” about Newsnight’s impartiality “as delineated in the BBC Editorial Guidelines, Section 15”.

“Ms Rostowski is a daughter of former Polish Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Jan Vincent Rostowski, a high ranked Civil Platform politician and fierce opponent of Law and Justice,” the letter explained.

The ministry also found faults with the reporting that the S&P rating agency downgraded Poland’s credit rating, which Newsnight said was because “Law and Justice has weakened the key institutions”, quoting an S&P report.

“The S&P decision to downgrade the rating of Poland has been widely commented and often criticised as economically ungrounded as GDP projections have not deviated materially since the election, the economy has not shown signs of deterioration, inflation is trending modestly upward, etc,” Dmochowski’s letter read.

The BBC did not immediately issue a response. (rg)