EuromediaTV and TVP: a family affair

By Aleksander Nowacki

Maciej Kosiński, general director of programming at public broadcaster TVP, admitted to conflicts of interest between his company and the popular TV production firm EuromediaTV, when he told a Sejm commission of inquiry that his wife is president of EuromediaTV's board.

This is the second major conflict of interest surrounding Kosiński to be discovered recently, following the revelation some three months ago that the company's main shareholder also happened to be Kosiński's daughter.

Euromedia is a successful company that has consistently performed well on a market which has gotten "incredibly competitive," said Janusz Kucharzewski, EuromediaTV's deputy president.

However, the company's achievements are now being cast into doubt because of the news that some 85 percent-95 percent of Euromedia's revenue was attributable to contracts on which the main shareholder's father had considerable influence.

Even Kosiński himself finds the situation questionable. He even took to sharing his moral dilemmas with the public.

"What am I to do?" Kosiński asked, while trying to explain his inability to put an end to the apparent conflicts of interest. "Force my adult daughter to chuck those shares in the bin?"

Not everyone has lent a willing and sympathetic ear to Kosiński's confessions. One such person is Zbigniew Ziobro, a Law and Justice (PiS) deputy on the Sejm investigative commission.

"Is your daughter the only person close both to you and EuromediaTV?" asked the politician during the hearing.

"No, not the only person...Wait, wait...Just a moment. Excuse me, I'm trying to remember...Oh yes, my wife works at Euromedia," was Kosiński's stumbling reply. "She is, errr, the president of the board."

Kosiński was keen to emphasize that his wife has been listed as the company's president in the National Court Register, and that there was never any attempt to make her position a secret - anyone could have established her identity.

Anyone, that is, who happened to know that Anna Brzywczy, the person listed as Euro-mediaTV's president, is Kosiński's wife's maiden name.

Euromedia's Kucharzewski was unwilling to talk to the Business Journal about the company's business activities.

"We operate in a completely normal way, just as any other company," he said. "But we have been subjected to a ruthless media attack and have encountered certain obstacles in our business activities. I don't think now is a good time to be talking about our business."

Kucharzewski went on to explain that many issues would be clarified in the course of its general shareholders' meeting and that he would be willing to discuss the company's business profile "when our situation returns to normal."

Following Kosiński's latest revelation, TVP president Robert Kwiatkowski promptly announced through his spokesman that he, for one, was not in the know.

It was perhaps his boss's statement that proved to be the last straw for Kosiński.

"Sometimes I can't help wondering whether I should get out of public TV altogether," said the beleaguered family man.