BBC Polish Section

The BBC Polish Section (pl: Sekcja polska BBC) was one of the foreign-language services of the BBC World Service. It existed between 1939 and 2005.

History

A decision to establish the BBC Polish Section was made on 3 September 1939, after Great Britain declared war on Germany. First programme was broadcast on 7 September 1939.

Programmes consisted of news, press reviews, commentaries, reports and interviews, and were also used for transmitting coded messages and orders to the Polish Underground using prearranged selection of songs and code phrases.

After V-E Day, a decision was made to continue broadcasting in Polish. Like other broadcasts from behind the Iron Curtain, BBC Polish-language programmes were jammed and, in the 1950s, listeners on occasion would be persecuted as enemies of the people. Jamming stopped in the 1970s but was reintroduced in 1981 as the authorities clamped down on political freedom (see martial law in Poland). Jamming finally ended in 1988. During the post-war period, while still concentrating on impartial and uncensored news, programming was expanded to culture, technology, social matters, British life and daily English language lessons.

In 1996, the office in Warsaw was opened.

On 25 October 2005 it was announced that 10 foreign-language services, including Polish, will be closed to free resources needed to start a new Arabic-language television service. The last broadcast in Polish took place on 23 December 2005.

Key personnel

Heads of Polish Section

Robin Campbell (1939–?)
Michael Winch (?–1942)
Gregory MacDonald (1942–1945)
Evelyn Zasio (1945–1953)
Józef Zarański (1953–1960)
Stanisław Faecher (1960–1966)
Zbigniew Błażyński (1966–1973)
Jan Krok-Paszkowski (1973–1980)
Krzysztof Pszenicki (1980–1988)
Eugeniusz Smolar (1988–1998)
Marek Cajzner (1998–2005)

Heads of Warsaw Office

Robert Kozak
Leszek Jarosz

External links

History of the BBC Polish Section (Polish)
50 years of the BBC Polish Section (Polish)

BBC World Service
Presenters	Ros Atkins Matthew Bannister Nikki Bedi Owen Bennett-Jones James Coomarasamy Dan Damon Evan Davis Peter Day Lyse Doucet Tim Franks Harriett Gilbert Claudia Hammond Roger Hearing Paul Henley Razia Iqbal Lee James Bridget Kendall Julian Marshall Lerato Mbele Nuala McGovern James Menendez Gareth Mitchell Fergus Nicoll Andrew Peach Max Pearson Justin Rowlatt Stephen Sackur Valerie Sanderson Julian Worricker
Former Presenters	Audrey Carville Komla Dumor Paddy Feeny Russell Fuller Charlie Gillett Edward Greenfield Bob Holness Robin Lustig Seva Novgorodsev John Tidmarsh Dave Lee Travis
Announcers and newsreaders	Kathy Clugston Zoe Diamond Jim Lee Neil Nunes Iain Purdon Tom Sandars
Programmes	The Bottom Line Business Daily Click The Forum From Our Own Correspondent HARDtalk Newsday Newshour Outlook Outside Source Reith Lectures Science in Action Sportsworld Stumped World Briefing World Business Report World Update World Book Club
Former Programmes	Caribbean Voices Culture Shock Europe Today A History of the World in 100 Objects Pop Club The Strand The Word World Briefing World Have Your Say The World Today Westway
Language Services	Arabic Bangla Nepali Brasil Mundo Pashto Persian Russian Somali Ukrainian Urdu
Closed Services	Albanian Romanian Polish
Miscellaneous	Bush House Greenwich Time Signal Lillibullero List of BBC newsreaders and reporters Radio Londres Radio Belgique Radio Oranje Radio Londra BBC Media Action London Calling The World John Tusa
Related articles	BBC News BBC Arabic Television BBC Persian Television BBC World News BBC Radio 4 BBC Monitoring BBC Learning English BBC World Service Television
Transmitter Sites	British East Mediterranean Relay Station Orfordness Woofferton

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.