Fine on TVN May Influence the Licensing Procedure

Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 7 | January 11, 2023

Will the National Broadcasting Council be used to muffle the network that has been critical of Law and Justice? Maciej Świrski, who has been attacking TVN for years, has been considering imposing a fine on the network for the report that exposed lies made by the Macierewicz Smolensk subcommittee. A decision is to be made later if the license for the station is to be renewed.

Today a meeting of the National Broadcasting Council will take place. Perhaps the Council will deal with Antoni Macierewicz’s complaint that has caused a sensation, as there is no such item on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting. Professor Tadeusz  Kowalski, the only representative of the opposition in the Council, has already proposed that the Council review this matter.

What is it about? The Macierewicz complaint against Piotr Świerczek’s report aired on TVN was received by the National Broadcasting Council in October. In December, Maciej Świrski, the Chairman of the Council (on the recommendation of the Sejm majority), announced that he would review the complaint ex officio. Świerczek exposed multiple manipulations by the Macierewicz Smolensk Subcommittee, which occurred while materials for the report were being gathered. Macierewicz claims that on April 10, 2010, President Lech Kaczyński was assassinated. Świerczek revealed that Macierewicz had either manipulated or ignored evidence contradicting this hypothesis, including the views of American experts.

In his complaint to the National Broadcasting Council, Macierewicz demands that the alleged lies by Świerczek be rectified. But rectification is governed by press law, not by media law. So, this matter is not within the competencies of the National Council.

On December 30, 2022, Świrski announced: “I decided to initiate an investigation.” The press release from the Council reads that Świrski, “acting ex officio, initiated (…) an investigation to fine the broadcaster, TVN SA. The purpose of the investigation is to determine if the program entitled Siła kłamstwa aired on TVN 24 and TVN contains content that violates Article 18(1) and 18(3) of the Broadcasting Act by promoting untrue information and actions contrary to the Polish raison d’état that endanger public security.”

Świrski wants to investigate “the extent to which the potential dissemination of untrue and unreliable information violates the terms and conditions of the license granted to TVN SA for broadcasting the program.”

It is worth recalling that Świrski wrote: “potential dissemination of untrue and unreliable information,” so he has doubts as to “dissemination” but not to the “untrue and unreliable” nature of the information.

Świrski has already asked TVN to respond to Macierewicz’s complaint, and when he received a letter from the station, Macierewicz replied.

What is in these documents? “I do not know,” Professor Kowalski admits. “The Chairman would not share this correspondence with us.”

Whether the Council as a whole can investigate this issue is a matter to be decided by the majority, which is held by the ruling camp. The Council needs three out of five votes to make that decision.

First, the report, then the TVN License

This is not the only case in which the Council will have to decide regarding TVN. The current National Broadcasting Council (which has a six-year term of office, i.e., until autumn 2028) will also decide on the license for TVN. Any fine imposed on the station for the Świerczek’s report may also influence the Council’s decision on license renewal. In accordance with the Act, the decision to fine the station falls within the competencies of the Chairman of the Council, not the entire National Broadcasting Council.

TVN’s license expires on April 14, 2024, but the station has already submitted an application to renew the license for the next 10 years.

There is a question about the impartiality of the Chairman of the Council. Before becoming a member of the National Broadcasting Council, Świrski proved himself to be a staunch opponent of TVN. “It is no point moaning and complaining about TVN. They have to be boycotted. Law and Justice politicians should not visit the station, President and the Prime Minister should not answer questions from TVN, and TVN should not receive invitations… And this is not about making journalists’ work difficult but about choosing the truth. Down with #FakeNewsMedia,” he twitted in December of 2018.

He has never withdrawn these words.

In January 2021, he said on TVN Info: “I have an impression that opportunism should be TVN’s new logo.” This way, he commented on the reports that many TVN bosses had been vaccinated at the medical university without taking their turn in the queue.

When he was invited to Tak jest programme on TVN 24 the same year, he commented: “Today we received an invitation from TVN on behalf of Andrzej Morozowski to take part in TVN24’s Tak jest programme. I told them that we would not come and expressed my opinion about that medium. I believe that if you come to TVN, you would only lend credence to their manipulations.”

TVN’s troubles with the Current Government

Owned by Americans, the TVN Group has frequently faced problems. The National Broadcasting Council of the previous term of office (entirely staffed by the ruling camp) delayed its decision on license renewal for TVN 24 for a very long time.

The Council finally granted the license, but conditionally (the law does not provide for a conditional renewal). The station was supposed to stop “violating the law.”

Law and Justice wanted to amend the media act in such a way that the Americans would have to sell most of their shares. The party did not conceal the fact that its aim was to have the shares bought back by a company controlled by the party. This plan failed, and after the intervention by the Americans, the President vetoed lex TVN.

Now the Americans have spoken. Mark Brzeziński, the US Ambassador to Poland, has commented on the recent decisions of the Chairman of the Council: “I must make it clear: it is not that the US Government does not recognize the right of regulatory authorities to act in Poland. However, some representatives of the National Broadcasting Council have expressed their resentment towards TVN. The current process must be carried out in a prudent manner so that every step follows the rule of law.”

We asked Professor Kowalski about Świrski’s impartiality. “Numerous examples demonstrate that there are considerable doubts about such impartiality. It can be assumed that he is not impartial,” Professor Kowalski tells us. “I have noticed that after he became Chairman of the Council, he did not reiterate these accusations, although he did not withdraw from them either. As for the complaint lodged with the National Broadcasting Council, unlike in court proceedings, there is no procedure where the Chairman could be excluded from reviewing any of the cases,” he adds.