TVP is Fighting TVN Harder and Harder. “It’s a political confrontation to the death,” some say.

By Beata Czuma, wirtualnemedia.pl | 5 July 2023

TVP Info has launched “How They Lie,” a program that targets TVN, with a logo similar to the graphic announcing “Fakty.” The first episode was hosted by Adrian Klarenbach, the second by Monika Borkowska, but there will be more presenters, Wirtualnemedia.pl has learned. – The brutalization of the media is indisputably an effect of the election campaign. It reflects the obvious, which is the stakes of this election. It is a political confrontation to the death,” says Boguslaw Chrabota, editor-in-chief of Rzeczpospolita.

The “How They Lie” program debuted on TVP Info on Monday night. It will be aired Monday through Friday from 7:16 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. – Here we will straighten out the lies and understatements, the manipulations of TVN and what they want to hide from their viewers on this station. Welcome to the Polish media,” said Adrian Klarenbach at the beginning of the first edition. The graphics promoting “How They Lie” resemble the logo of TVN’s “Facts”: both have a similar background, and the word “lie” is written in a similar font to “Facts.”

We asked Michal Adamczyk, head of the TV News Agency, about the purpose of the program, but he referred us to Samuel Pereira, head of TVP Info. “The goals of the program were explicitly stated by the presenter. It is the viewers’ right to know, including about the lies, manipulations, treatments used and silences of TVN. It turned out that one program “Facts and Lies” is not enough. Please direct the rest of your questions to the press center,” Pereira replied.

He admitted that Adrian Klarenbach will not be the only presenter of “How They Lie.” “There will be more of these presenters,” he added. The TVP press office did not respond to our questions.

Media expert: TVP has no limits whatsoever

“I don’t know how to comment on this, for me it’s an absurd-curiosity situation, because it’s public TV today that very often uses a hypocritical, manipulated message. It is TVP today that is the manipulator, the propaganda medium. What mission does it accomplish in this way? They will probably defend themselves, talk about disinformation, but we know that this is not true. It will be turning a cat on its head, trying to catch TVN perhaps on some inaccuracies, inaccurate messages, because this will always happen if you make material for 1.5-2 minutes, and transmit complex content. It will always be possible to find inadequacies in such a message, and this is probably what this program will be based on. “Here we are the reviewers who will catch other people’s inaccuracies or mistakes, while we don’t err, we just consciously manipulate,” Professor Adam Szynol, a media expert from the University of Wroclaw, tells Wirtualnemedia.pl. “It’s apparent that there are no more restrictions in TVP.”

“I think a good portion of the station’s journalists are aware that they have been plugged into the election campaign and are expected to play a key role in it as the one who will convince the ruling camp’s message is correct,” Szynol adds.

“How has this program been planned, what will it look like, how long will it last, what is its mission?  No one knows. Probably, there will be as many episodes as necessary, and the mission is that they are to convince viewers of public television of the validity of their message and will disavow the message of rival television, which is the biggest critic of the current government. Why did TVP choose TVN as the object of its attacks? Because it is at the moment the only mainstream station that reviews the government’s actions quite strongly. Polsat, which has positioned itself in the comfortable position of observer, does not,” the media expert adds.

Adam Szynol does not think this is preparing the ground for the revocation of TVN’s license, which ends next year.

“I don’t think this strategy is a long-term one, it’s more of an ad hoc agenda made for an ad hoc political battle. There has been a lot of concern that the ruling camp will start losing in the polls, and that is why there are all efforts being made, including in the media field, to try to regain at least a slight lead over the opposition and not lose any more points. However, it cannot be ruled out that if power is retained by those currently in power, they will imbibe various ideas in order not to grant this concession. I think they will try to re-try the media ownership law,” the expert stresses.

Kataryna: You’re doing a poor job, comrades

“For a long time now, TVP has not been public television, but a party medium pursuing the interests of the ruling party. On a daily basis, it violates many provisions of the Broadcasting Act, which the equally partisan National Broadcasting Council fails to recognize. What’s more, the latter gives permission for it. I hope that someone will one day hold this group to account. Does such a program fit into the mission? Absolutely not. TVN should not respond to TVP for this particular attack, besides everything it responds daily to the propaganda pouring from government TV. The brutalization of the media is indisputably a result of the campaign. It reflects the obvious, which is the stakes of this election. This is a political confrontation to the death,” believes Boguslaw Chrabota, editor-in-chief of Rzeczpospolita.

“In a normal country, the media look at the hands of the authorities. In Poland, the public media look at the hands of the private media to see if they are enthusiastically enough reporting on the government’s successive successes. For the upcoming (and in fact long ongoing) election campaign, Telewizja Polska has prepared a cyclical program called “How They Lie,” but it does not intend to hold politicians accountable in it, but its competition, TVN. The first episode gives a foretaste of what this accounting will look like,” Kataryna, a well-known blogger and publicist, tells us.

Kataryna recalls that in the first episode of “How They Lie,” it was reported that “TVN’s coverage of the opening of the tunnel under the Swina River did not mention Poland’s success and opportunities for local residents. Instead, it contained the message that 173 tunnels could be built with KPO money. It also emphasized that the money largely came from EU funds, as if the EU funds did not come from the contributions of Polish taxpayers, among others.”

“Where is the lie here? Well, nowhere, party TV employees simply wished that TVN’s message was more consistent with their own – i.e. success after success. Another “lie” pointed out to TVN is supposed to be the omission of the “important to millions of Poles” program Safe Credit 2 percent. Is it possible to lie in silence? [On Monday’s “Facts,” a dozen minutes before this statement by Klarenbach, there was separate material about the 2 percent credit. – ed.].

Experience with previous PiS housing programs teaches that it is better to talk about whether a program is important when it has worked at least a little. If more TVP programs stigmatize TVN for material in which the facts are right, it will be quite a successful laurel for TVN. Because that there is so little to get attached to? You’re doing a poor job, comrades from the party radio station,” jokes the publicist.

It should be added that on Monday’s “Facts” several minutes before this statement by Klarenbach, there was separate material about the 2% credit (Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Minister Waldemar Buda presented the program on Monday). Klarenbach did not add this information.

“Funny that the debut of the program coincided with another (which one is it?) verdict for yet another TVP lie. This time from our collective coffers TVP will pay 200 thousand to the Open Dialog Foundation for serial vilification. It didn’t hit the poor, the party will add to the subsidy. However, if I were in the position of TV decision-makers, I would start worrying about whether the competition would come up with a similar program. That would be plowing,” concludes Kataryna.

Bianka Mikolajewska: This is insolence and mockery.

“Both politicians of the ruling camp and employees of the media once called public see the independent media as a threat to themselves. Revealing the truth about the actions of United Right politicians (which the independent media are doing) could make voters turn away from the current government, and that would also mean big changes for the pro-government media. They are fighting a battle not to give up their jobs, not to be cut off from money and grants various purposes. They do everything to show the independent media as a party in a political dispute, as “opposition media,” and in addition – they accuse the independent media of being the ones who lie and manipulate. This is unbelievable outright insolence and mockery, considering, for example, the achievements of TVP Info over the past eight years – all these manipulations, lies and horror strips,” says Bianka Mikolajewska, an investigative journalist at Wirtualna Polska.

We asked Bartosz Węglarczyk, editor-in-chief of Onet, for comment, but he admitted that he did not watch the TVP Info program. Lukasz Warzecha, a columnist for Rzeczpospolita, responded similarly.

“I don’t watch linear TV, so I can’t judge whether the attack on TVN has intensified or not. I have the impression that it has always been there, but if something like this is happening I would link it to the upcoming elections, not to the extension of the TVN concession, especially since no one now knows what the government will look like after the next elections,” Warzecha told us.

Marcin Makowski: This is an escalation of the media war in Poland

The “Wprost” journalist has a different take on the new TVP Info program.

“This is a certain episode in the total war between public and private media. This time, the state media decided to raise its visor and respond directly, in an aggressive and defiant manner, showing the alleged “hypocrisy” of the other side, as they themselves have been repeatedly attacked in TVN’s “Facts”, where they have been shown flashbacks from “News”, TVP Info strips. This is an escalation of the media war in Poland, which we have been observing for eight years, and now it is taking open forms of direct attack. A certain novelty and something absolutely strange, even bizarre, is the running of this program in a layout that resembles the studio of TVN’s “Facts.” I do not understand what the point of this procedure is. Such a strong reference to the media, which you criticize, works rather counter-effectively, because you give them more importance, emphasize their importance even more. I think this is declining TVP,” Marcin Makowski tells us.

As he adds, the context of the election campaign “is clear here. “The media are becoming elements of the election campaign, we’ve been dealing with this for a long time now. “Since they accuse us of not being objective and take away our privilege of being journalists who write about the facts, we will show the same thing, or even worse.” This is feeding the hardest electorate and their bubble,” concludes the “Wprost” journalist.

“News” and TVP Info have long criticized TVN and TVN24, and this has intensified at various times. This was the case, for example, in April 2020, after publications about Jaroslaw Kaczynski visiting a cemetery on the Smolensk anniversary during the first lockdown. At that time, TVN was attacked on TVP1’s daily service. “Fakty” on the last day responded to TVP with a special statement.

TVP’s current actons coincide with, among other things, statements made by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. He recently unfoundedly accused in TVN of providing little coverage of the riots in France. – TVN today is behaving like communist television when there was an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986, he said. In turn, a few weeks ago, Law and Justice Chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski said to a TVN 24 reporter that he was “forced to treat” him “as a representative of the Kremlin.”

TVN Warner Bros. Discovery is not taking legal action over the “How Do They Lie?” program for now.

Shown on Monday on TVP Info, the first episode of the new series “How They Lie” was watched by an average of 356,000 viewers, according to a report by Wirtualnemedia.pl.

Michal Adamczyk to head TAI

At the end of April, one of the hosts of the main edition of “News” Michal Adamczyk was appointed director of Telewizyjna Agencja Informacyjna, replacing Jaroslaw Olechowski in the position.

At the same time, Samuel Pereira was made deputy director of TAI, and “News” reporter Marcin Tulicki became deputy director of the program (the editorial office has been headed by Danuta Holecka for four years). Tulicki was promoted to deputy director of TAI in the first half of June.

In late May and early June, TVP Info debuted the series “Demaskatorzy,” in which Wojciech Mucha and Wojciech Pokora – according to the announcement – conduct “a review of the toxic narratives present in the Polish, European and transatlantic information space,” TVP1’s “Arena of Views,” hosted by Magdalena Ogórek and Miłosz Kłecz, and TVP1 and TVP Info broadcast the series “Reset” by Michał Rachoń and Slawomir Cenckiewicz.