To the boys and girls at TVN, Jolanta Lange aka Gontarczyk is a social activist. They simply can’t bring themselves to call her a secret collaborator of the Security Service (SB) [the secret police in communist Poland – ed.] and co-responsible for the death of a priest – said Piotr Woyciechowski, commenting on an article published on the TVN24 website, which reported the revocation of a state decoration from the former agent. He pointed out that the piece omitted a key aspect of the story.
On Wednesday, President Andrzej Duda stripped Jolanta Lange aka Gontarczyk of the Silver Cross of Merit. A petition requesting this, initiated by Piotr Woyciechowski, landed on the president’s desk in April of this year. Among those who signed it were Prof. Sławomir Cenckiewicz as well as a number of journalists from the “Free Speech Zone” media circle, including Michał Rachoń, program director of Telewizja Republika; journalists Cezary Gmyz and Adrian Stankowski; and the editor-in-chief of Niezalezna.pl, Grzegorz Wierzchołowski.
The motivation behind the petition was the outcome of an investigation into the death of Father Franciszek Blachnicki. Research revealed that he was poisoned by officers of the communist Security Service (SB). Lange, under the codename “Miss,” had been spying on the priest and, together with her husband, was among the last people to see him alive.
“They Overlooked the Fact”
News of the president’s decision quickly spread across the media. However, as Woyciechowski points out, not all news outlets have reported on the matter accurately. After 5 p.m., the Polish Press Agency (PAP) published a dispatch offering a cursory description of the investigation into Blachnicki’s death. This version, unaltered, was also published by the TVN24 news portal.
“The boys and girls at TVN are stuck in the initial, bungled 2005 investigation conducted by the Katowice branch of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) into the murder of Father Franciszek Blachnicki,” stated Woyciechowski.
He emphasized that they “overlooked the fact that in 2020, a second investigation was launched, which determined beyond any doubt that this devout priest and anti-communist was murdered by the SB through poisoning.”
“To the boys and girls at TVN, Jolanta Lange aka Gontarczyk is a social activist. They simply can’t bring themselves to call her a secret collaborator of the SB and co-responsible for the priest’s death. You have no shame or decency,” he concluded.
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