The Sejm already has made a motion to convene a meeting of the Culture and Media Committee with the participation of the Chairman of the National Broadcasting Council, Maciej Swirski. He is expected to explain his abuse of power in the context of media freedom, including the imposition of an 80,000 zloty fine on Radio Tok FM. “We hope that the discussion on this topic will make the public aware of the dangers of attempts by government officials to censor free media,” points out Anna Marucha, director of corporate communications for Eurozet Group.

The motion to convene a meeting of the Culture and Media Committee with the participation of Maciej Swirski was submitted by New Left MP and vice-chairwoman of the Culture Committee Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus. In the motion, she wrote that one of the points of the meeting should be “Information of the Chairman of the National Broadcasting Council on the abuse of statutory powers by the Chairman of the National Broadcasting Council in the context of media freedom.”

Maciej Świrski censor and executioner

“I have the impression that he (Maciej Swirski – editor’s note) has taken on the role of censor and executioner. He points his finger at which media should be punished and which should not. This is his perception. Only, seriously, this is Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s “me-seeing-me”, because Mr. Świrski is not the head of the National Broadcasting Council by accident, because he is from the Law and Justice camp,” Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus explained on Tuesday, May 9, in Radio Tok FM’s program “Political Interview”.

If at least 10 members of the Culture and Media Committee sign the Scheuring-Wielgus motion, its chairman, who is currently Piotr Babinetz of the Law and Justice Party, will have 30 days to convene a meeting. The signatures to the motion have been announced by opposition deputies. This means that a meeting of the committee with the participation of Maciej Swirski could already take place at the next session of the Sejm, which is scheduled for May 24-26.

Recall that Maciej Swirski on April 28 imposed an PLN 80,000 fine on Inforadio, the broadcaster of Tok FM radio. Świrski claimed that the radio station had humiliated and violated the dignity of World War II victims, including Jews, in the June 7 broadcast of Piotr Maślak’s “First Breakfast in Tok,” which called Prof. Wojciech Roszkowski’s book “a manual for the Hitlerjugend.” Swirski also disliked the description of Roszkowski as a “former Law and Justice MEP.” According to the KRRiT chairman, this was “not only an insult to the professor himself, but also more broadly to people who share the views of the Law and Justice party.”

The dangers of attempts at censorship

Inforadia’s management announced an appeal of Maciej Swirski’s decision, noting: “We will take appropriate legal steps so that the legitimacy of the penalty imposed on the station will be decided by an independent court.”

Radio Tok FM editor-in-chief Kamila Ceran, meanwhile, indicated that the case could be about obstructing Tok FM’s license renewal. Inforadio had already submitted a corresponding application in October 2022, but so far it has not been processed. The radio station’s current license expires on November 3.

Maciej Swirski has also initiated proceedings against TVN 24 and Radio Zet. The head of the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) took the news TV station to task for its report “Franciszkańska 3” about what Karol Wojtyla knew about pedophilia cases in the Church before he became Pope; the report “The Power of a Lie” about Antoni Macierewicz’s Smolensk subcommittee; and two episodes of the program “Kropka nad i” – with Professor Barbara Engelking and director Agnieszka Holland. Radio Zet, meanwhile, may get in trouble for reporting that the husband of Sejm Speaker Elzbieta Witek of the Law and Justice Party has been lying in the ICU in Legnica for several months, with the daughter of a deceased patient from Lower Silesia reporting to the prosecutor’s office that her mother could not get a place in the intensive care unit because it was occupied by Stanislaw Witek, who should be receiving palliative treatment. In February, “Presserwis” also learned that Maciej Swirski wants to punish Eurozet (the broadcaster of Radio Zet, owned by Agora) for information that the transportation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky through Poland, during his trip to the US, was carried out bypassing Polish services and police.

At Agora, they expect that a meeting of the Culture and Media Committee with the participation of Maciej Swirski could help media independent of the authorities. – The decision on the punishment for Tok FM and the proceedings pending against TVN and Radio Zet were taken single-handedly by the chairman of the KRRiT, without the participation of the other members. We hope that a discussion on this issue with the participation of MPs sitting on the commission will make the public aware of the dangers of attempts by government officials to censor free media,” points out Anna Marucha, director of corporate communications for Eurozet Group.