''Wiadomości'' (, ) is a Polish daily television

news program News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either video production, produced local programming ...

that was produced by public-service broadcaster

Telewizja Polska Telewizja Polska S.A. (; TVP), also known in English as Polish Television, is a Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster in Poland, founded in 1952. It is the oldest and largest Polish television network. After 2015, when the right-wing po ...

(TVP) and was broadcast on TVP1 from 18 November 1989 until 19 December 2023. The main edition was broadcast daily at 7:30p.m. CET. It premiered on 18 November 1989 and replaced the '' Dziennik Telewizyjny'' (), which was aired during the communist era for over 31 years and was considered to be one of the communist government's mouthpiece. In September 2020, ''Wiadomości'' was the most popular

in Poland, with an average of 2.66 million viewers a day. In its final years, especially during the

Law and Justice Law and Justice ( , PiS) is a Right-wing populism, right-wing populist and National conservatism, national-conservative List of political parties in Poland, political party in Poland. The party is a member of European Conservatives and Refo ...

(PiS) government (2015–2023), the program (along with TVP's other news outlets) was accused of becoming a propaganda outlet for the ruling party. Following the formation of the

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

on 13 December 2023, and subsequent management changes at TVP on 19 December, the main edition for 20 December was pre-empted, and was replaced by a short message from news presenter Marek Czyż about upcoming changes at TVP and an invitation to the next day's edition. The following day, it was announced that ''Wiadomości'' would be ending, and be replaced by a new daily bulletin, the title of which was revealed to be '' 19.30'' later in that day.

History

''Wiadomości'' replaced '' Dziennik Telewizyjny'' (), a newscast that was a symbol of

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

in the

Polish People's Republic The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...

during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. The first edition of ''Wiadomości'' aired on 18 November 1989 and was hosted by journalist Wojciech Reszczyński. Reszczyński greeted the audiences with a message: "Good evening, I hope that this program will gain your approbation in the upcoming days. The information contained in this program will be either good or bad, but always true and we count on help and cooperation."

Cancellation

The last main edition of ''Wiadomości'' was broadcast at 7:30 p.m. on 19 December 2023. On 20 December 2023, the newly elected government took over TVP, which led to the program not being broadcast. A day later ''Wiadomości'' was replaced by '' 19.30''.

Controversy

Accusations of propaganda

Since 2016, the program has been accused of becoming a propaganda outlet for the ruling

party.Klepka R.
Ewolucja Wiadomości TVP1: od medialnej stronniczości do propagandy politycznej?
n:Walka informacyjna. Uwarunkowania – Incydenty – Wyzwania, red. H. Batorowska, Uniwersytet Pedagogiczny im. Komisji Edukacji Narodowej w Krakowie, Instytut Bezpieczeństwa i Edukacji Obywatelskiej, Katedra Kultury Informacyjnej i Zarządzania Informacją, Kraków 2017. Historian and columnist Timothy Garton Ash, writing for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', praised the critical coverage of government issues from TVN's competing newscast '' Fakty'' () when harshly criticising TVP's ''Wiadomości'' ().

The ''Facts'' is not
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
-style impartial: it clearly favours a more liberal, pro-European Poland and is strongly anti- PiS. But unlike the so-called ''News'', it is still definitely professional, high quality, reality-based journalism.

References

External links

* * Polish television shows 1989 Polish television series debuts Polish television news shows 1980s Polish television series 1990s Polish television series 2000s Polish television series 2010s Polish television series 2020s Polish television series 2023 Polish television series endings Telewizja Polska original programming {{Poland-tv-prog-stub