THREAT OF RACISM LOOMS OVER EURO 2012, PURSUANT TO CERTAIN MEDIA, THAT IS

I have already written about the way BBC Panorama doctored a report about racism or anti-semitism among Polish and Ukrainian football fans, or, soccer fans, if you are to use North-American brand of English. In one of my previous posts, entitled "Decline of the BBC Empire", I have related in what way their purported documentary film "Stadiums of Hate" distorted the truth, i.e., it cut out all the good things said about Poland by Jonathan Ornstein, President of Krakow Jewish Community Center, and left from his one-hour interview only the incidents of antisemitism. Also, the producers have discarded the whole interview with an Aviram Baruchyan, an Israeli playing for Polonia Warsaw. In both cases, BBC Panorama, when confronted by Mr. Ornstein and by newspapers, simply stated that what was discarded did not fit the subject of the film (meaning it did not support the Panorama's assumed racism or antisemitism of the Euro 2012 hosts).
Even more perplexing doctoring of news is the casus of Dutch newspaper "De Telegraaf", known for xenophobic articles about Polish workers in Netherlands. Pursuant to "De Telegraaf", Polish fans in Krakow, present at the training of Dutch players, who use Wisla Krakow facility, engaged in monkey noises during the practice of the Dutch team. De Telegraaf claimed that Dutch officials would file an official protest with UEFA. The accusations have been quickly followed by majority of the western media. However, it turned out that Dutch officials did not file any protest, and what's more, the Netherland's manager, Bert van Marwijk denied that any monkey noises took place at the training ground of the Dutch national team. What really happened at the ground was booing by the Wisla Krakow fans of UEFA officials for not making Krakow a host of any games of Euro 2012, and making noise directed against fans of Cracovia Krakow, the traditional rivals and enemies of Wisla Krakow. Neither "De Telegraaf" nor any other western media reported to this date that their story was false. It appears that the Mayor of Krakow had directed to UEFA a request for explanation and apology to the City of Krakow, for repeating false reports of accusations of racial abuse of the Dutch black players.

Janusz Andrzejewski

The author is a New York based attorney, writing on this blog about legal and important community related subjects. You can contact the author by telephone (cell: 732-527-2195) or at his website: www.adwokatandrzejewski.com