In the spotlight: Tomasz Lis

Lis, the former face of Polsat and member of its management board, quit the station after he was removed from "Wydarzenia" ("Events" in Polish), one of several programs he headed. Polsat's official reason for the removal was budget cuts as the station works to combine its news service with the recently acquired TV Biznes.

In interviews following his departure, however, Lis suggested that Polsat was pressed by the authorities, including Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, to subdue a journalist critical of the government. He stated that pressure on Polsat had been growing and the station had faced "brutal attacks." Lis also referred to Polsat's owner, Zygmunt Solorz-Żak, as a political victim.

Rampant speculation about the issue led the Media Ethics Council to request that the journalist and Polsat's management board both issue straightforward statements about the circumstances behind Lis' dismissal from "Wydarzenia." In response, Polsat stuck by its original statement while Lis has not offered an official comment.

Born in 1966, Tomasz Lis graduated from the University of Warsaw with a degree in journalism. He began his career in 1990 as a newsreader for TVP. From 1994-1997 he served as TVP's correspondent in Washington DC and in 1997 he joined TVN. After his dismissal in 2004 - for violating his contract agreement - he joined Polsat.

The journalist is unlikely to end up on the dole. A week after he left Polsat, Lis got an offer to head an online program for Gazeta.pl.