Media watchdog slams 'Big Brother;' PAP still for sale

The media watchdog last week fined private broadcaster TVN zł. 300,000 for promoting violence and sex on its "Big Brother Battle" ("BB") reality program, which aired March 5-6. "The concept of the program is based on competition without limits and with no reference to rules of fair play and participants are encouraged to get violent and awarded for being violent and aggressive," said Juliusz Braun, chairman of the National Television and Radio Council (KRRiTV). "One of the participants started slamming another's head against the wall of the (swimming) pool and the producers of the program didn't react; there was blood too." Braun also said indecent scenes and dialogues had become the norm for the show, which first launched in Poland last March.

In the March 5-6 episodes, participants Agnieszka and Łukasz, who Braun said had just met each other two hours earlier, were shown making out in a jacuzzi and later together in bed during prime time hours. "By broadcasting those scenes before 11 p.m., TVN might have exposed kids to morally offensive scenes of violence and sex," he said. "TVN abused the council's regulation from November 2001 that outlines the broadcasting times of programs that could threaten children's psychological and moral health." Braun said he could have just told TVN to stop abusing the council's regulations but he preferred to take severe action. "Still, in the case of TVN the financial penalty could go as high as zł. 700,000 (50% of the annual fee the station pays for its frequencies)," he said. "We had been criticizing the general concept of the first editions of 'Big Brother' but at that time TVN wasn't abusing the law. It was Polsat we first punished for broadcasting indecent scenes on its reality show 'Gladiatorzy' (October 2001) during (prime time)." TVN's spokesman Andrzej Sołtysik said the station would appeal Braun's decision. Mike Morley, director of Endemol Neovision, the Warsaw-based company that produces "BB" in Poland, defended the show. "Both TVN and Endemol are aware of what the limits of taste and decency are defined to be and we're confident we're in compliance with them," he said. "We've followed the same guidelines on 'BB3' as we did on 'BB1' and 'BB2.' " Meanwhile, the KRRiTV is also monitoring "Bar," another reality show run by No. 1 private broadcaster Polsat, which purchased the rights to the show from Sweden's Strix Television. So far Bar hasn't upset the KRRiTV.

Buying the press The Polish Press Agency (PAP), which has been on the Treasury Ministry's list of companies to privatize since early last year, looks set to stay there a while longer as the ministry tinkers with sell-off plans. Little progress has been made in the six months since the previous government selected BRE Corporate Finance (BFC) to advise the ministry on the sale of a minority stake in PAP. "On Sept. 27, 2001, BFC presented a pre-privatization analysis," according to Magda Nienałtowska, from the Treasury Ministry's press office. "The ministry is evaluating those documents, including the privatization strategy in which BCF presents various privatization models." Meanwhile, the agency's financial situation may deteriorate, as PAP no longer receives government subsidies. Set up by the communist government to spread propaganda, the agency in 1997 was transformed into a 100% treasury-owned company, subsidized by the state. Thanks to restructuring PAP has slowly become less dependent on state aid. Subsidies dropped from 25% of the agency's revenue in 1998 to 6% last year. But Robert Bogdański, PAP's president, said he cannot imagine the agency's future without an investor. "We have to update our systems," he said. "Serious investments are simply a must."

Alma Media, Finland's No. 2 media company, expressed interest in PAP last year when Juha Blomster, the president of Alma's business information group, attended a presentation on PAP in Warsaw. Last week, Kari Vaisanen, chairman of the supervisory board of Baltic News Service, controlled by Alma Media, said his company's plans haven't changed. "We're still interested in the Polish Press Agency, but we're waiting for information from the Treasury Ministry. We haven't had anything official from them," Vaisanen said. "We would obviously be interested in a majority stake." The size of that stake, however, could be a bone of contention between the Treasury Ministry and potential buyers as a bill on PAP prohibits the ministry from selling more than 49% of the agency's shares.