Bronislaw Komorowski, the speaker of parliament, became acting president on the death of President Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash in April 2010. He defeated Mr Kaczynski's twin brother and former prime minister, Jaroslaw, in the July second round of the presidential election.

A leading figure in the centre-right Civic Platform party, Bronislaw Komorowski has served in several post-Communist governments since 1989, including a term as defence minister in 2000-2001.
He became speaker in 2007, and Civic Platform adopted him as its candidate for the presidential elections due in the autumn of 2010. These were brought forward to June-July on the death of President Kaczynski.

Bronislaw Komorowski will work more closely with the Civic Platform-led government than did his right-wing predecessor, who vetoed a number of market-reform laws. Born in 1952 and an historian by profession, Bronislaw Komorowski was active in the anti-Communist civil rights movement from the 1970s.He has been married to Anna Dembowska since 1977. He has five children: Zofia Aleksandra (b. 1979), Tadeusz Jan (b. 1981), Maria Anna (b. 1983), Piotr Zygmunt (b. 1986) and Elżbieta Jadwiga (b. 1989).

Bronislaw Komorowski is a descendent of Polish nobility. Bronislaw Komorowski is distantly related to Princess Mathilde of Belgium, Duchess of Brabant, via her mother Anna Countess d'Udekem d'Acoz born Countess Komorowska

Komorowski is reportedly intending not to move or work in the Presidential Palace; instead to work at Belweder and live in his apartment in Powiśle, Warsaw

Source: BBC & Wiki

1. WRITTEN PRESS

Poland has more than 5,400 press titles including national and regional dailies (167), weeklies (827), monthly magazines (2,401), and specialized press. The 2006 data on the readership rates show that 90 per cent of Poles read the written press, 78 per cent declare reading dailies, 68 per cent - weeklies, and 41 per cent - monthly magazines. Recent statistics show a gradual decline in sales of national dailies (except Gazeta Wyborcza), regional dailies, and opinion weeklies.

Press market is dominated by foreign, mostly German owners such as H. Bauer (operating in Poland as Wydawnictwo H. Bauer LTD.), Verlagsgruppe Passau (Polskapresse), and Axel Springer (Axel Springer Polska LTD.) Another important foreign publisher is Norwegian Orkla Press (Presspublica). The only big domestic competitor is Agora S.A.

Gazeta Wyborcza, launched in 1989 and owned by Agora S.A., was the first totally independent newspaper in post-communist Poland. Gazeta Wyborcza had been the top Polish national daily with the highest circulations for over a decade until Fakt, owned by Axel Springer, recently took the lead.

There is an increased specialization of the magazine sector, yet the dominance of women and opinion magazines is continuing.

2. AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA

Following the fall of communism, the Polish audiovisual media sector has grown rapidly and led to the establishment of a public and private duopoly. There are 74 television channels and 235 radio stations in Poland.

The public broadcaster Telewizja Polska (TVP) S.A. - owned by the State Treasury - continues to dominate the market in terms of audience and advertising shares. There is a competition between two main commercial channels, which are Polsat with an audience share of 15.9 per cent and multi-regional TVN with 15.1 per cent. Other private terrestrial TV channels in Poland include two Roman Catholic channels: TV Trwam and TV Puls, and seven local channels. The audience share of each of these channels does not exceed 1 per cent.

The Polish public radio broadcaster - Polskie Radio (PR) S.A. owned by the State Treasury operates five national radio stations. It also runs 17 regional radio stations and Radio Polonia - targeting Poles abroad. Private radio include two leader nation-wide stations, Catholic radio station, three over-regional stations, and numerous local networks

Poland is the third biggest cable television market in Europe with approximately 4.5 million subscribers (Open Society Institute, 2005). The cable market is dominated by six operators with significant foreign capital.

3. DIGITAL MEDIA

There are two digital television satellite platforms. The government adopted a strategy for the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting via ‘digital islands’ until the complete analogue switch-off in 2014.

Launch of digital TV broadcasting will start in Warsaw (multiplex 1) and in five towns of Wielkopolska province (multiplex 2). The available frequencies will be allotted to applicant multiplex operators in a tender organized by the Office for Electronic Communication (UKE). The National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) will grant licenses to TV channels to broadcast within the multiplexes.

4. NEWS AGENCIES

The major news agency is the public Polish Press Agency (PAP) owned by the State Treasury. The Catholic Information Agency (KAI), set up by the Polish Episcopate, specialises in gathering information for the Catholic press. There are also several smaller private information service providers.

5. ONLINE MEDIA

The percentage of households with Internet access in Poland came to 30 per cent in 2005 comparing to 26 per cent in 2004.

Despite the growth in the percentage of households with Internet access, disproportions among different sectors of society persist. The majority of Polish households still use analogue modems. The most popular online media are Gazeta – online equivalent of top Polish daily and services by two commercial nation-wide radio stations.

Source: www.ejc.net

In 2009, the average cost of IT and radio advertising did not change as compared with the previous year. In 2009, the average (net) cost of TV advertising ranges from PLN 900 to 38,000 per 30 seconds of air time depending on the TV station and time when it is broadcast. Advertising is cheaper in the teletext service of various TV stations of nationwide and regional coverage. In channels one and two of TVP (public television) the cost of week-long advertising in teletext on the home page is PLN 30 to 200 depending on the industry.

Also press advertising is of major importance. The average price of advertisement in Polish press ranges from PLN 300 to 2,700 per 1 space module (PLN 10 to 60 per 1 cm2). The price depends on the size of the space occupied and also on which page the advertisement is to be placed, as well as on whether it is to be printed in colour or not.

Outdoor advertising is gaining on importance. Mobiling marketing, consisting in the sending of commercial information to mobile phones, is developing fast. However, under the Polish law potential recipient has to give prior consent to a receipt of such information.

As of April 2006 a Code of Ethics in Advertising has been in force in Poland. The Code is not a collection of official regulations, but an internal self-regulation of the industry, agreed upon by representatives of authors of advertisements, advertising agencies and mass media associated in the Union of Associations Advertising Board.

Source: Institute for Market, Consumption and Business Cycles Research

http://london.polemb.net/

Polish President Lech Kaczynski and scores of other people were killed April the 10th when the president's plane crashed on landing in the western Russian city of Smolensk, officials said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev immediately appointed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the head of a commission to investigate the crash and sent Russia's emergency situations minister, Sergei Shoigu, to the site.



Kaczynski, the identical twin brother of former prime minister Jaroslaw, was on his way to attend commemorative ceremonies at the forest of Katyn in western Russia where 22,000 Poles were killed by Soviet troops 70 years ago.

The crash of his plane occurred three days after Putin and his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, together attended a memorial for the victims of the massacre at Katyn. The Putin-Tusk meeting there was seen as a huge symbolic advance in Russia's often thorny relations with Poland.

From now the word KATYN will mean polish tragedy twice as painful.

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