1. Jerzy Urban completed his senior high school exams as an external student.
22 Facts About Jerzy Urban
1. 2.
Jerzy Urban studied in two faculties of the University of Warsaw and was expelled from both.
3.
Jerzy Urban started his journalistic career with the journal Nowa Wies.
4.
Jerzy Urban was officially banned from publishing under his own name.
5.
Jerzy Urban was eventually totally forbidden from carrying out any journalistic activities.
6.
Jerzy Urban created the tradition of weekly press conferences, transmitted by Polish television and attended by both Polish and foreign journalists.
7.
In 1986 Jerzy Urban published a media story on how the United States had betrayed the Solidarity movement.
8.
Jerzy Urban met with a Washington Post reporter and told him that a Polish spy for the CIA, who was later identified as Ryszard Kuklinski, was aware of the plan to install martial law in 1981 and had passed that information on to the United States government.
9.
Jerzy Urban ran for office as an independent during the semi-free elections in 1989.
10.
Jerzy Urban suffered a landslide defeat and since then gave up attempts to actively participate in politics.
11.
In 2002, Jerzy Urban was charged with offence against the head of the Vatican state, Pope John Paul II, due to the publication in Nie of the article on Pope's health.
12.
In court, Magdalena Bajer, the leader of the Media Ethics Council, testified as a witness that Jerzy Urban "brutally mocked the suffering of a man who was a head of state".
13.
Jerzy Urban was defended by the International Press Institute in Vienna.
14.
Florian Lempa stated that Jerzy Urban's action did not satisfy the definition of the crime, since a head of state is only protected when he is present on Polish territory, and the article was published before the Pope arrived in Poland.
15.
Jerzy Urban added that the article was aimed at people who try to profit from the Pope, rather than at him personally.
16.
On 5 January 2005, the court convicted Jerzy Urban and fined him 20,000 zlotys.
17.
The court argued, "Jerzy Urban intentionally caused a scandal by publishing an article about John Paul II at the moment when the Pope came to Poland".
18.
Jerzy Urban died in Konstancin-Jeziorna on 3 October 2022 at the age of 89.
19.
Jerzy Urban was buried at the Powazki Military Cemetery, Warsaw on 11 October 2022.
20.
Jerzy Urban described himself as an atheist, and frequently criticised organised religion, especially the Roman Catholic Church in Poland.
21.
Jerzy Urban was a dedicated socialist throughout his life; describing the Solidarnosc movement as the "worst thing to happen to Poland" and maintained this stance even after Polish government was overthrown during 1989 revolutions.
22.
Jerzy Urban is remembered as an intelligent, skillful writer and satirist, as well as successful owner and editor-in-chief, however he remains a widely negatively received figure with a troubled reputation.