Poland’s state broadcaster TVP has relieved its Rome correspondent of her duties after she said that not all Russians should be blamed for the invasion of Ukraine and suggested that Poles “suckle hatred with their mother’s milk”.
“We are outraged by Magdalena Wolińska-Riedi’s tweet, in which she deemed Poles to be Russophobes and Germanophobes,” wrote TVP in a statement, in which it said that she had been removed from duties.
“At TVP there is no place for words that attack the Polish national interest. TVP does not identify itself with statements that are part of Russian propaganda,” it added.
Korespondentka TVP odsunięta od obowiązków#wieszwięcej https://t.co/aGyaZEH4zP
— tvp.info 🇵🇱 (@tvp_info) January 28, 2023
The controversy began on Friday after Wolińska-Riedi tweeted a photograph of her daughter at the former Germany-Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz, which is located in what is now Poland.
“It is necessary to pass on to the young generation knowledge about the depths of hell that the Nazis prepared for the world,” she wrote.
In response, a number of Polish users criticised her for saying “Nazis” rather than “Germans”. Many in Poland prefer the latter term to be used to make clear which country was responsible for the Holocaust and to avoid Poles being blamed for crimes committed on their occupied territory.
In a series of further tweets, Wolińska-Riedi argued that Germans as a whole were not responsible for the Holocaust. She then asked: “Are Russians today responsible for the war in Ukraine…or Putin and his people?”
She subsequently added: “So we stigmatise the entire Russian nation for the madness of Putin and co…Probably only we Poles, who suckled hatred with our mother’s milk, can interpret it in this way.”
A few hours later, Wolińska-Riedi apologised for her remarks: “I’m sorry. I got carried away in this discussion. I ended up falling into unfair generalization and stigmatisation myself. I always want to serve Poland with my work and activities here abroad.”
Czyli stygmatyzujemy cały rosyjski naród za szaleństwo Putina i spółki.. chyba tylko my Polacy, którzy wyssaliśmy nienawiść z mlekiem matki, możemy to tak interpretować…😟
— Magdalena Wolinska (@mwolinskariedi) January 27, 2023
However, the following day, TVP announced that it had relieved her of her duties. Wolińska-Riedi has served as its Rome correspondent since 2015.
“A TVP journalist should treat social media as a form of public statement, bearing in mind that they also represent TVP there and…have a significant impact on perceptions of TVP,” wrote the broadcaster.
An international study conducted last year by the Pew Research Center found that Poles had the most negative views towards Russia among all countries surveyed. Only 2% of Poles held a favourable view of Russia, while 97% had an unfavourable opinion.
Main image credit: Magdalena Wolinska-Riedi/Instagram
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
