On Monday, the court in Bydgoszcz forced Telewizja Polska to apologize to MP Krzysztof Brejza for falsely presenting private correspondence four years ago and ordered him to pay PLN 200,000. PLN as compensation.
The verdict was handed down in a civil case for the protection of personal rights filed by Brejza against Telewizja Polska. The MP and his lawyer, Dorota Brejza, were present at the announcement of the verdict; defendant was not represented.
In the verdict, the court ruled that Telewizja Polska had to apologize to Brejza for the false representation of the content in the article published on the tvp.info portal on August 25, 2019 and subsequently repeated many times in the material presented on TVP Info and TVP 1. are private correspondence.
Telewizja Polska must admit in a statement that Brejza made statements to his name that did not come from him, but were addressed to him, and that his various statements were copied to different people and presented as one coherent statement allegedly to one group of people was targeted. . He also admits that this gave the wrong impression that Brejza was guilty of unlawful behavior.
TVP must apologize for “publishing false, manipulated and distorted material” and regrets that “in this way it has violated personal rights in the form of honor, good name, right to privacy and confidentiality of correspondence.”
The court awarded TVP PLN 200,000 in damages to the defendant. PLN with interest, and also ordered the reimbursement of legal costs in the amount of almost PLN 17,000. PLN with interest.
Publication of the statement
The statement must be published and read within seven days after the judgment becomes final on TVP1 and TVP info, immediately before the main edition of News, and on the TVP Info portal and several other portals that have posted this information.
Judge Ewa Gatz-Rubelowska noted in the oral reasons for the judgment that the case concerned an article published on the TVP Info website on August 25, 2019 in connection with the so-called invoicing scandal at the Inowrocław City Hall.
In this article, as determined by the court, the plaintiff’s private correspondence in the form of his text messages was revealed in a manipulated and false manner, and various statements of the plaintiff from different years were collected, even those from before the scandal occurred. at the town hall. (…) The court has no doubt that the published article presented the plaintiff in a very negative, even scandalous way
– said the judge.
The oral statement of reasons also stated that “the evidence gathered in the case, and in particular the documents submitted by the University of Toronto, shows that multiple interventions on Brejza’s phone occurred from April to October 2019 with using the Pegasus spy system. The phone was not available to TVP journalists and they did not have access to the investigation files of the Gdańsk Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The court ruled that the publication was the result of the suspect’s ill will and was an attack on the chief of staff of the opposition party during the election campaign.
The judgment is invalid
After the hearing, MP Brejza emphasized to journalists that this is the first verdict establishing that Pegasus was used in the case and that this instrument was used to influence the 2019 elections.
Lawyer Dorota Brejza noted that she was satisfied with the verdict.
I am satisfied not only because we have achieved justice in a case that concerns us personally, but also because the ruling is very important from the point of view of assessing the functioning of public institutions in Poland. We are dealing with a public broadcaster, public television, which is obliged to carry out a mission and, above all, is obliged to maintain objectivity and impartiality.
– said the plaintiff’s lawyer.
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mly/PAP
Source: wPolityce