Polish ambassador to Italy complains about press article

Italian daily La Repubblica presented a one-sided negative image of Poland in an article it published about LGBT rights in the country, among other issues, according to the Polish ambassador in Rome.

Anna Maria Anders wrote a letter to the editor, which the paper published on Saturday.

The dispute concerns an article entitled 'The black heart of Poland,' published on April 18, which reported on the situation of LGBT people, a recently-introduced almost total abortion ban, and repressions against media and the judiciary. The text also accused Poland of "systematic discrimination against women."

"It's a different Europe - sovereign and obscurant," the headline stated.

"The image presented of my country is uniform, being almost a monoculture of negative information," Anders wrote. "Poland is not only like that, as many Italians living there know; 8,000 according to official data, 20,000 according to unofficial."

Anders cited statistics to show that Poland is accommodating towards foreigners, including Italians, many of whom, she wrote, could give a positive opinion of the country. She pointed out that since 2014, Poland had issued the greatest number of short- and long-term residency permits of all EU member states to third country migrants and students.

Anders also wrote that positive opinions about Poland could be heard among migrant workers, including jobseekers from non-EU countries, and students under the EU's Erasmus programme.