Jerzy Urban was born on August 3, 1933 in Łódź. His father, Jan, was a journalist, member of the PPS and the Bund (General Union of Jewish Workers of Lithuania, Poland and Russia).

During the first weeks of World War II, Jerzy Urban’s family moved to Lviv, where his father got a state job as an engineer. The family then took Soviet citizenship and changed their surname from “Urbach” to “Urban”. When Germany attacked the USSR, the family was hiding in the Borderlands. They returned to Łódź shortly before the end of the war.

photo: PAP – public domain / Wikipedia / CC0

Jerzy Urban as Cabinet Press Spokesman, 1980s

He started his career as a journalist in 1951. Initially he published in “Nowa Wieś” magazine. After four years, he joined the weekly “Po Prostu”, where after a year of work he became the head of the political department, and in 1961 he began to work with “Polityka”. Jerzy Urban in the years 1981-1989 he was the spokesman for the press of the People’s Republic of Poland and during this period he was one of the main perpetrators of state propaganda and censorship.

In 1989, he was elected member of the Council of Ministers. At the same time, he was chairman of the radio and television committee. In January 1990, he became a member of the SLD, but did not take any political action. In 2003, he testified before the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the Rywin affair, publicly accusing Leszek Miller of tolerating corruption in his immediate vicinity, which caused much surprise and was accused of betraying the SLD community.^{. He knew about the scandal before it was revealed, Adam Michnik told him about it. He left the party in 2004.}

From 1990 he was editor of the weekly “NIE”, and from 2012 he ran the official NIE Weekly channel on YouTube, publishing satirical content.

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