The National Broadcasting Council Remains Silent on the TVN Report “The Power of Lies.” The Million-Dollar Fine is Meant to be a Bogeyman

By Mariusz Kowalczyk, press.pl | 7 August 2023

Eight months after Maciej Swirski, chairman of the National Council of Radio and Television, threatened TVN with a fine for airing the reportage “The Power of Lying,” it is not even clear what stage the Council’s proceedings are at. Only material aired by independent media that Swirski didn’t like has arrived.

“I don’t know what stage the proceedings are at, because Chairman Świrski doesn’t inform the Council members about anything,” says Prof. Tadeusz Kowalski, who was appointed as a member of the KRRiT by the Senate. “Apparently, some experts have been appointed to investigate the matter, but I have no idea who they are,” Kowalski adds.

Swirski’s powers

No one knows who they are. The KRRiT doesn’t want to announce it, and Świrski himself believes that this type of investigation is the exclusive prerogative of the Council chairman, and he doesn’t have to disclose anything.

In a reportage titled “The Power of Lies,” aired in late December 2022 on TVN 24’s “Black on White” program, its author Piotr Swierczek revealed that Antoni Macierewicz’s subcommittee, appointed to explain the causes of the Smolensk catastrophe, hid evidence inconsistent with the thesis of an assassination. However, the subcommittee said that “the allegations and pseudo-arguments presented by the TVN station are false and present the Russian point of view, misleading Polish public opinion.”

Maciej Swirski, at the request of Antoni Macierewicz, initiated proceedings to punish TVN for the report in late December 2022. It is to determine whether the reportage violates the provisions of the Media Act by promoting false information and actions contrary to the Polish raison d’etat and endangering public security. The broadcaster faces a fine of up to 50 percent of the annual fee for the right to dispose of the frequency intended for terrestrial broadcasting. In the case of TVN, this means a fine of about PLN 1 million.

TVN, in its response to the letter from the National Broadcasting Council, requested that the proceedings be discontinued as irrelevant. What happened to this request? KRRiT is not responding either.

Tadeusz Kowalski in early February proposed that the Council discontinue the proceedings, but the KRRiT did not want to consider his proposed position, and Chairman Maciej Swirski again decided that the ongoing proceedings were his sole prerogative.

KRRiT chairman pursues independent media

Since then, the list of materials published by independent media for which Maciej Swirski has initiated proceedings against them has grown considerably. We publish this list below, with an indication of what these requests currently concern (based on information obtained from the KRRiT).

 

TVN

  • Reportage “The power of lies” – punishment proceedings initiated
  • Material aired on July 19 on TVN’s “Facts” about “Ms. Joanna from Krakow” who took an abortifacient, brutalized by police – investigation pending
  • The May 15 episode of the “Contact Glass” program on TVN 24, in which co-host Krzysztof Daukszewicz reacted to the appearance of Piotr Jacoń with the words: “And what gender is he today”. – punishment proceedings initiated
  • Report in the program “Black on white” on TVN 24 on March 6, “Franciscan 3” on the fact that Karol Wojtyla knew about pedophilia in the Church before he became Pope – punishment proceedings initiated
  • Editions of the program “Kropka nad i” on TVN 24 from April 18 (with Agnieszka Holland – host Monika Olejnik was alleged to have given information inconsistent with historical facts) and April 19 (with Prof. Barbara Engelking – allegations of anti-Polish content, falsification of history, attributing guilt to Poles for the extermination of Jews in the ghetto, and lack of reaction by host Monika Olejnik to one-sided statements) – investigation in progress

 

Radio Zet

  • For information on December 22, 2022, that the transport of the Ukrainian president through Poland, during his trip to the U.S., was carried out bypassing Polish services and police – punishment proceedings initiated
  • A publication on Radio Zet’s website on April 6 about the fact that the husband of Sejm Speaker Elzbieta Witek has been lying in ICU at a hospital in Legnica for several months, as a result of which a notice has been filed with the prosecutor’s office regarding possible overstepping of authority at the hospital – an investigation underway

Tadeusz Kowalski admits that he doesn’t even know when and how the media’s requests for punishment will be processed. “The next meeting of the National Council is scheduled for August 23. There is no agenda yet,” Kowalski says.

Swirski a tool of power

In May 2023, Maciej Świrski fined Tok FM radio 80,000 zlotys for a broadcast that criticized Professor Wojciech Roszkowski’s textbook on history and the present. The chairman of the KRRiT found in it, among other things, humiliation and violation of the dignity of victims of World War II, including Jews, discriminatory content and incitement to hatred based on political views, as well as insulting Prof. Roszkowski.

Representatives of Inforadio, broadcaster Tok FM and the station’s management have argued many times that these charges are baseless. Inforadio has filed an appeal with the court.

Maciej Swirski, answering questions from members of the parliamentary committee on culture and media in mid-May this year, pointed out that initiating proceedings and imposing penalties are among his duties, and he is fulfilling them.

Journalistic organizations independent of the government, as well as experts, have repeatedly noted that Swirski is a tool of the government to harass independent media that criticize the ruling camp.