Hyperlocal in Poland

Now here is a heartening news story about regional titles going hyperlocal.

It comes from Poland courtesy of Editors weblog and the village of Jano,an 850-person village in north eastern Poland.

a dozen people - mostly teenagers or over 40s - were gathering in a multi-activity meeting hall. They were listening to Igor Hrywna, a journalist at Gazeta Olsztynska, the dominant newspaper in this "Warmia-Mazury voivodship" (Varmia-Masuria). That day he left his base in the regional capital of Olsztyn to meet this group for the third time in one month. With his assistance, they are learning how to contribute to the recently launched hyperlocal website janowo.wm.pl, covering the 3,000 people "gmina" (commune) centered on Janowo, one of the smallest of the region.

Could this model work in the UK? well

Edytor is already managing 35 such hyperlocal websites, as a way to get closer also to small advertisers. In the villages, the biggest companies are often the bakery which employs only eight persons, or the hairdresser with a staff of four. "We want to reach the places where print is not profitable, asking our advertising salespersons to monetize potential markets which have been ignored until now

Humphries lost for words

I have just heard a very strange interview on the today programme.John Humphries thought that he was going to talk to Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski about his bill to have a Polish National day in the UK.

Instead Mr Humphries as the interviewee kept calling him was blamed for the Liberal tendencies of the corporation which meant in he words of Mr Kawczynnski that they

not do stories about more controversial immigration and focused instead on the "soft touch of White Christians from Poland.

This said the MP lead to attacks on the Polish community.

A obviously taken aback Mr Humphries, cut short the interview and looked forward to hearing the evidence.

You can hear the interview here for the next 24 hours

Beeb under attack for anti Polish sentiment

Daniel Kawczynski writing in the Independent this moring attacks the BBC over their coverage of Polish immigrants.

From Question Time to Panorama, these attacks on the Polish community in the UK have been particularly prevalent on the BBC. For the liberal elite who now realise that immigration is an issue which must be discussed, Poles are a soft target. Were the Pakistani or Chinese communities to be attacked in this way, accusations about racism would be levelled from bodies representing these communities. However, with no high-profile, national organisation to represent their interests, white Poles are constantly the target of reports about the problems of immigration.

I have to say that it is the media in general not specifically the BBC and there are far worse offenders.Of course the fact that the author is Tory MP has no bearing on the choice of critisism

Poles turn on the Mail

The masses are turning on the right wing press.Yesterday the Express was forced to remove its coverage of the McCanns and today the Mail is under attack from the Polish community.

Media Guardian reports that

The Federation of Poles in Great Britain has "reluctantly" filed a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission accusing the Daily Mail of defaming Polish residents in the UK.
In its letter of complaint to the PCC the federation accused the Daily Mail of printing articles that gave rise to "negative emotions and tensions between the new EU immigrants and local communities

And who can blame them?

Clearly Poland's membership of the Eu is not having the desired outcome when it comes to burying the past.Not content with last week's comments concerning the German methods of reducing Polish votes in a post war Europe,the country's media is now joining in on the act.

This is the front cover of the magazine Wprost which depicts the German chancellor Angela Merkel suckling the Kaczynski twins.

Appearing under the headline "Europe's Step Mother", it is not the first the Conservative magazine has expressed its anti German views.In 2003 a cover showing then Chancellor Gerhard Schröder being ridden dominatrix style by Erika Steinbach -- head of a group representing Germans booted out of Poland following World War II -- clad in Nazi garb.