Ivo Widlak, born July 5, 1978 in

Knurów Knurów (; german: Knurow; szl, Knurōw) is a city near Katowice in Silesia, southern Poland. Knurów borders on the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union, a metropolis with a population of two million. Knurów is located in the Silesian Highlands, ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

- international press, radio and tv

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

. He started as a very young reporter at weekly

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

in his hometown titled "Przegląd Lokalny". Then he started hosting TV show for children and teenagers called "Kleks" on

TVP Katowice TVP3 Katowice a.k.a. TV Katowice also Television Katowice is one of the regional branches of the TVP, Poland's public television broadcaster. It serves the entire Silesian Voivodeship with particular dedication to the Upper Silesian Metropolis a ...

. The same year, in 1995, wrote scripts and hosted "5-10-15", another show for children and teenagers on

TVP1 TVP1 (TVP Jeden, ''Program I Telewizji Polskiej'', ''"Jedynka"'') is the main public television channel of TVP (Telewizja Polska S.A.), Poland's national television broadcaster. It was the first Polish channel to be broadcast and remains one ...

Telewizja Polska Telewizja Polska S.A. (; "Polish Television"; TVP), also known in English as the public Polish Television is a Polish state media corporation. It is the largest Polish television network, although viewership has been declining in the 2010s. Sinc ...

. Later he co-developed and co-hosted "Twój Problem Nasza Głowa" on Telewizja Wisła later

TVN (Poland) TVN (Polish pronunciation: ) is a Polish free-to-air television station, network and a media and entertainment group in Poland. It was co-founded by Polish businessmen Mariusz Walter, Jan Wejchert and Swiss entrepreneur Bruno Valsangiacomo. It i ...

. In 1998 he moved to

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

to co-host " Rower Błażeja" on

. During his career he worked for Radio Puls in

Gliwice Gliwice (; german: Gleiwitz) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. The city is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica river (a tributary of the Oder). It lies approximately 25 km west from Katowice, the regional capi ...

and

Radio ZET Radio Zet () is a Polish commercial radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcas ...

in Warsaw. In 2001 he moved permanently to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and in 2004 he created and hosted own talk show titled "Ivo na zywo" and produced and hosted daily news program on TVPChicago broadcast on Channel 34

WJYS WJYS (channel 62) is an independent television station licensed to Hammond, Indiana, United States, serving the Chicago area. It is one of two commercial television stations in the Chicago market to be licensed in Indiana (alongside MyNetworkT ...

. He also has been an editor-in-chief of several popular internet news websites in Polish. He rose to prominence as an investigative journalist in the United States, for uncovering corruption and irregularities that took place with the renovation of the building of the Polish Consulate General, Chicago titled "Consulgate" (the

Supreme Chamber of Control of the Republic of Poland The Supreme Audit Office (, abbreviated ''NIK'') is the supreme audit institution and also one of the oldest state institutions in Poland, created under the Second Republic on February 7, 1919, barely 3 months after the restoration of Poland's ...

informed by Widlak later confirmed that irregularities occurred at all stages of implementation of the renovation, and the final cost was in the amount of $8.2 million). President of the Polish Cultural Institute in Chicago.

Deportation controversy

On December 14, 2012, pinknews.co.uk reported that Ivo Widlak is facing the risk of deportation from the United States due to his bisexuality. Widlak has been married for ten years to a woman, Lale. However, someone in the local Polish community, later revealed it was attorney Christopher Kurczaba, reportedly went to authorities and claimed that Ivo and Lale were in a sham marriage, and that Ivo was in fact homosexual. The Widlaks are not a same-sex couple, so they do not fall under the protection of a recent executive order that President Obama signed in September 2012. That order stated that foreigners in a same-sex relationship with an American citizen have the same anti-deportation protections as foreigners married to an American citizen.

References

External links

Ivo Widlak on FacebookIvo Widlak on Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Widlak, Ivo 1978 births Living people People from Knurów People from Chicago Polish emigrants to the United States American television reporters and correspondents American male journalists Journalists from Illinois American people of Polish descent Polish journalists