Warsaw’s Spokesman Stepping Down

Jerzy Urban, who for seven years defended the government policy to outlaw Solidarity, said he was stepping down as government spokesman as of Monday--the same day that the union became legal again.

Urban told state radio he will take over the Committee for Radio and Television, a government panel that oversees all broadcasting. A secretary in Urban’s office said that Urban and his successor, who has not yet been named, probably will appear together today at the weekly briefing.

Urban’s Western-style news conferences were unique in the East Bloc when they began, with Urban answering every question put to him by foreign journalists. The questions and responses, printed in full in a government newspaper, provided many Poles with information not normally available in the censored press.

Urban, 55, plans to run in June as an independent candidate for Parliament, now that opposition candidates are allowed. But he acknowledged that polls show him having low popularity.