“Sir, they just want us to receive the information they choose. They want to take away our freedom.”
I heard from a taxi driver from Warsaw who took me and cameraman Mateusz Maksiak to Plac Powstańców Warszawy in Warsaw, where the headquarters of the Television Information Agency is located.
Media coup
‘They’ are of course the government of Donald Tusk, which is currently staging a real coup in the media and trying to illegally change the management of TVP, Polish Radio and PAP.
The taxi driver told me that we were making a report with a team to make a story about TVP and TAI journalists who did not want to quit their jobs and did not agree to illegal dismissal.
My wife is so upset that I told her to turn off the TV and radio
– complains the driver.
We reach the TVP building. It is surrounded by police officers who obviously do not want to let us in. We have to call our colleagues and have someone come down for us. The one who comes to get us is Rafał Jarząbek. He approaches us smiling, but when we enter the building he appears not to be very happy at all. At the gate we are greeted by several security guards with concerned and tired expressions on their faces.
We take the elevator to the office of TAI director Michał Adamczyk, where he and deputy director Marcin Tulicki are waiting for us. The people we meet in the corridors have a look of determination on their faces. They do not want to give up journalistic freedoms.
We feel this determination in the conversation with Adamczyk and Tulicki. Yesterday was a tough day. Many journalists and employees were unable to enter and reach their workplaces because their passes were blocked.
People who have been doing their work responsibly and with dedication for years suddenly lose it a few days before Christmas.
We came to record a conversation with members of the TAI management, but we have to wait because MPs Jan Kanthak and Michał Woś have just entered the office. They came with a parliamentary intervention.
Adamczyk explains to them what is happening. There are many journalists in the building, but they cannot do anything because they simply cannot broadcast the program. We visit studios and editorial offices. The television and newsroom, which should have been filled with journalists at this hour, are now half empty. Those we meet enjoy talking to MPs. You can see that they enjoy meeting politicians who care about what happens with the media.
We have invited all parliamentarians to support us. The fact that only PiS MPs showed up says everything about how others approach the issue of media freedom
– TAI journalists will tell us later.
A dangerous precedent
We go back to the office. There is an ongoing debate about what is currently happening in public media. On one of the screens in the room we see a broadcast of PAP’s TV Republika, showing an attempt to deprive Wojciech Surmacz of his position as president of the Agency by Marek Błoński, a candidate of Minister Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz. Police invade public media spaces. The scene seemed copied from Belarus.
Everyone expects something similar to happen soon in this room where we are sitting now. We also work with lawyers who defend TAI against illegal takeovers. They explain that there is no legal basis for everything that is happening. All steps taken by Tusk’s government are simply illegal. We sit down for a conversation with Adamczyk, Tulicki and TAI’s second deputy director, Samuel Pereira.
This situation sets a dangerous precedent. What is happening here now could happen tomorrow at the Constitutional Court or at the National Bank of Poland. In the same illegal way, contrary to all legal rules
– Adamczyk tells us.
We want to show that the law is the most important thing and that you should never lie. That’s why we’re here. The point here is not that the authorities at TVP cannot be changed. That is of course possible, but it must be done legally
– adds Tulicki.
This lawlessness is a signal to our enemies in the east. The illegal takeover of an important strategic institution. What image of Poland will this situation show them?
– warns Samuel Pereira.
We are recording the conversation, which will be broadcast on the wPolsce.pl channel, and we are thinking about returning to the editorial office. However, at this moment we are receiving information from our interlocutors that Minister Sienkiewicz’s men will probably try to take control of TAI by force that day. We decide to stay, we don’t want to miss it.
There is a tense atmosphere in the room where we are gathered. Everyone remembers the unpleasant scenes we saw the day before in the building in Woronicza. Will we also witness such violence here?
Adamczyk and colleagues show us an email sent to them by the self-appointed acting director of the Office of Corporate Affairs, Daniel Gorgosz, informing them that they have been dismissed from their positions.
I was appointed by the legally elected board and the National Media Council. Also by President Mateusz Matyszkowicz, who was not fired. He is still registered in the National Court Register as president of TVP and only he can fire me
– says Tulicki.
Everyone makes it clear: they don’t want to give up their jobs and their freedom and rights.
The tense situation changes when more PiS representatives enter the room. In about 30 minutes, all the important politicians of this party will gather in the hall: Jarosław Kaczyński, Mateusz Morawiecki, Mariusz Błaszczak and others. The atmosphere is calmer, politicians and journalists talk to each other. It is becoming clear that the danger of an attack on TAI and TVP will be postponed, at least for some time.
We record conversations with Prime Minister Morawiecki, Ministers Przemysław Czarnek and Błaszczak, and Marshal Małgorzata Gosiewska. Everyone is repeating one important thing: this is an attack on the free media, and they will not allow the destruction of democracy and pluralism.
We say goodbye to journalists. I will spend the night there for some of them. We enter the night of Warsaw. We are met by police cordons on the street. It is not clear to us who they are defending and against whom.
The public media building surrounded by uniformed services. This is an image of the first days of Donald Tusk’s reign that will travel around the world.
Source: wPolityce