Poland’s National Broadcasting Council Chairman Will Not Consider Request to Discontinue Proceedings on Fining TVN
The National Broadcasting Council has not considered the position proposed by its member, Professor Tadeusz Kowalski, to discontinue the proceedings on fining TVN for the Siła kłamstwa (Power of a lie) report. TVN has disclosed a detailed response to the allegations concerning the report.
Prof. Tadeusz Kowalski, a member of the National Broadcasting Council appointed by the opposition, explains that during the Wednesday meeting, the Chairman of the Council, Maciej Świrski, was supposed to conclude that the proceedings on fining TVN were his exclusive right.
“None of the members of the National Broadcasting Council, apart from the chairman, has spoken on this matter (on the position proposed by Professor Kowalski – editor’s note). To a certain extent, the Chairman has challenged the Council’s right to speak on a resolution that would oblige the Chairman to take specific actions, which in this case would mean the discontinuation of the proceedings,” explains Professor Tadeusz Kowalski. As he added, the Chairman of the Council has referred to his exclusive prerogatives concerning the initiation of the proceedings by the Chairman or deciding on the fine (in accordance with provisions of the law, the Chairman of the Council may act on his own on this matter).
Professor Kowalski proposed that the National Broadcasting Council should announce the discontinuation of the proceedings. The proceedings have been initiated following a complaint lodged by Antoni Macierewicz, an MP for Law and Justice and Chairman of the Commission for Re-Investigation of the Aviation Accident dealing with the Smolensk air disaster.
“The vast majority of comments made in the complaint by the Chairman of the Commission for Re-Investigation of the Aviation Accident is related to the request for rectification of information that is inaccurate or untrue in the complainant’s opinion. Some of the reservations constitute polemics with opinions expressed by persons who appeared on the program to which the complaint refers. Having read the documentation presented, the National Broadcasting Council concludes that it is not the authority competent to resolve matters related to the right to rectification, which is governed by the Act on the Press Law,” reads the position proposed by Prof. Tadeusz Kowalski.
On Wednesday, TVN published a detailed response to Macierewicz’s allegations. TVN sent that response to the National Broadcasting Council on 19 January. As the broadcaster explains, the response adds detail to the first letter in which, at the beginning of January, TVN requested that the Council should discontinue the proceedings as groundless.
In a 40+ page long document, the station emphasizes, among others, that Antoni Macierewicz tries to have the broadcaster fined instead of entering into a public discussion with the report’s authors. TVN explains that Macierewicz’s allegations that the report promoted activities contrary to the law, the Polish raison d’état and security, are not based on the content of the report, or are unfounded in their substance. The NIAR (National Institute for Aviation Research) report was also attached to the explanations.
At the end of December, the Chairman of the National Broadcasting Council Maciej Świrski initiated an ex officio investigation into imposing a fine on TVN for the Siła kłamstwa report. In the report, its main author, Piotr Świerczek, proves that the parliamentary subcommittee led by Antoni Macierewicz of Law and Justice hid evidence that was inconsistent with the theory of the Smolensk attack. As the Council stated in its press release, the purpose of the investigation is to determine if the Siła kłamstwa report infringed upon provisions of the Media Act by promoting untrue information and actions contrary to the Polish raison d’état and threatening public security. The broadcaster is facing a fine of nearly PLN 1 million.
Initially, the investigation took place without the knowledge of other members of the National Broadcasting Council, who had not received documents on this matter. The Chairman of the Council, Maciej Świrski, was criticized even by Marzena Paczuska, appointed to the Council by Andrzej Duda, President of the Republic of Poland. The documentation was made available to all members of the National Broadcasting Council only after Professor Kowalski had intervened.