August 08, 1991|By Joseph A. Reaves, Chicago Tribune.
WARSAW — Any way you look at it, Jerzy Urban is a survivor. He knows how to play the system-any system.
A decade ago, Urban was the mouthpiece of martial law and one of the most hated men in Poland. Today, he says he`s a defender of democracy as well as one of the nation`s richest men.
A colleague, writing about Urban in 1985, described him crudely as ``the sort of man who ostentatiously and deliberately breaks wind in living rooms and watches the reaction of other guests.``
That, figuratively, is what Urban did when he was spokesman for the Communist regime from the imposition of martial law in 1981 until just before Solidarity came to power 1989. And that, figuratively, is what he is doing now as editor of the only true opposition newspaper in post-Communist Poland.
The slick, full-color weekly tabloid called Nie, or No, is less than a year old. But already it has a circulation of 600,000, twice that of the Solidarity movement`s daily Gazeta Wyborcza. Urban predicts Nie`s circulation will reach 1 million this fall.
Urban, 58, started Nie with profits from a satirical book he wrote soon after Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski`s government fell. Titled ``Urban`s Alphabet,`` the book lampooned Poland`s leading social, cultural and political personalities, sometimes hinting at lurid affairs and rumored sexual preferences.
Sex and sexual innuendo feature prominently in Nie`s weekly columns, but political satire is the paper`s mainstay. Its favorite targets are Urban`s old enemies: Solidarity and the Roman Catholic Church.
When Solidarity and the church tried to push a tough new anti-abortion law through parliament late last year, Nie ran a quarter-page, full-color photograph of a nude couple about to make love. The caption warned readers that they risked going to jail or being forced into unwanted marriages if they did what the couple in the picture was about to do.
The picture enraged church leaders and President Lech Walesa, a devout Catholic who strongly supported the anti-abortion measure.
In March the government prosecutor`s office charged Urban with
``publishing an image of pornographic character,`` a criminal offense punishable by up to two years in prison.
Urban was acquitted July 15, but the judge`s verdict was almost irrelevant. Simply by provoking the government into bringing charges against him, Urban put himself in a no-lose position.
``(My trial) had nothing to do with pornography,`` Urban said as he left the courthouse. ``The trial was political. It transformed me from an oppressor into a fighter for freedom of speech.``
Several human rights activists expressed concern about the charges against Urban, particularly since a number of pornographic magazines now are published freely in Poland.
``None of the editors of those magazines have been charged with pornography-only Urban,`` said Marian Nowicki of the Helsinki Committee.
The committee has made no official statement on Urban`s trial so far, but Nowicki said her ``personal opinion is this is a political trial against a man who was highly visible in the Communist regime.``
That sentiment perhaps was enhanced last Thursday when Urban was questioned by the provincial prosecutor`s office in Warsaw about articles in Nie that reportedly offended religious leaders. Religious intolerance is banned in Poland, and by week`s end no new charges were filed.
Urban, who recently was listed as one of the nation`s 100 richest men, says he is pleased the government is going after him. He says he only wishes he had been convicted on the pornography charge.
``For the court, it was better to find me not guilty,`` Urban said. ``But for me it would have been better to have been convicted and get a long sentence. It would have caused an eruption of problems for this government.``
