“Public Authorities Choose the Path of Punishment.” Editorial Offices all Over Poland Stand in Solidarity with TVN

fakty.tvn24.pl | January 5, 2023

Freedom of speech is crucial to democracy. Dozens of editors from all over the country, large and small, have reminded us of this along with us, and this is an amazing support. [TVN] thanks everyone very much. The chairman of the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) has initiated proceedings seeking a financial penalty against TVN for its report “The Power of Lies,” which allegedly violates the Polish raison d’etre and security. Now a report on the Smolensk subcommittee’s hiding of evidence can be seen on dozens of [online] portals.

I think it’s fair to say that we [at TVN] didn’t expect such unprecedented support from Polish editors. Similarly unprecedented is the attempt to punish TVN for Piotr Swierczek’s report on the hiding of evidence by Antoni Macierewicz’s Smolensk subcommittee. The editorial boards that support us publish “The Power of Lying” on their portals.

“We are small, we operate only on the local market, but we believe that one should simply stand in solidarity with all media,” says Janusz Urbaniak, head of the editorial board of the weekly “Rzecz Krotoszynska”.

“It’s hard to defend democracy without independent media,” says Daniel Dlugosz, editor-in-chief of Nowa Gazeta Trzebnicka.

Freedom of speech and freedom of the media are slogans that do not need to be explained, without which there is no democracy in any country,” points out Janusz Kucharski, editor-in-chief of Gazeta Radomszczańska.

There are a lot of such small local editorial offices, and there are more and more of them all the time. That and “Rzecz Krotoszyńska”, “Radomszczańska”, “Bielski Rynek”, eKoszalin, “Dziennik Płocki”, “Świdnica”, “Tygodnik Zamojski”, “Tu Oława”, chojnice.pl, iSzczecinek and many others.

Since Wednesday, the report revealing the scale of evidence manipulation by Macierewicz’s subcommittee has been available for free almost everywhere.

The more people watch the material, the more they will be able to form an opinion on the subject, according to Krzysztof Gwizdała, editor-in-chief of the portal istotne.pl

Report “The Power of Lies” – Watch on TVN24 GO

Not only TVN fans support freedom of speech

Motivations for making the film available are the same everywhere – concern for media independence.

“So that journalists are not intimidated by anyone, first of all, so that journalists can do their job. Above all, so that journalists can keep an eye on the authorities,” stresses Daniel Dlugosz.

This is an objection to attempts to introduce censorship. Political sympathies do not matter here. This is pointed out by the lowiczanin.info portal, which published the report. Its creators claim that they are not fans of TVN, but it is about defending independent television.

How dangerous it is for freedom and democracy that the chairman of the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT), who avoids speaking out and is not going to explain anything, is pointing out how dangerous it is for freedom and democracy that the chairman of the KRRiT is initiating proceedings against independent television, and who avoids speaking out and is not going to explain anything, the Catholic monthly “Więź” points out. “Why do we support TVN? Macierewicz’s and Swirski’s reactions show that in place of correction or discussion, the public authorities choose the path of punishment. The realization of freedom of speech by journalists would threaten a gag order. Today this applies to TVN, but it could apply to any independent editorial office.”

Ex officio proceedings

Maciej Swirski, ex officio, initiated proceedings to punish TVN.

“The procedure takes a bit of a shortcut. It immediately assumes that the end will be punishment,” believes Juliusz Braun, former chairman of the KRRiT.

According to former and current members of the Council, the chairman has no legal basis for dealing with the case.

“The National Council is not an institution competent to deal with journalistic rectifications. That’s what the press law is for,” says Professor Tadeusz Kowalski, a media expert from the UW and member of the KRRiT.

The Chairman of the Council is a man with close ties to the power camp. He wants to investigate, at the request of Antoni Macierewicz, whether “The Power of Lies” promotes false information that contradicts the Polish raison d’etat and threatens public security.

“This is pure politics. I don’t know how Mr. Swirski intends to define this raison d’etat. Is it based on what Antoni Macierewicz says? Because that seems to be what he is talking about in these complaints and his documents. If the Polish raison d’etat is to be defined by Antoni Macierewicz, then we are in a madhouse,” stresses Krzysztof Luft, a former member of the KRRiT.

What Antoni Macierewicz has presented is not a state document or even a final one. It does not have the status of a completed report.

“I see no reason at all to consider the context of the raison d’etat in light of the views of one of the participants in this dispute,” says Professor Tadeusz Kowalski.

TVN, in a letter to the National Broadcasting Council, requested discontinuance of the proceedings, deeming them pointless.

Author: Katarzyna Kolenda-Zaleska / Source: Fakty TVN (https://tvn24.pl)