The District Court in Warsaw has overturned a previous ruling concerning journalistic privilege and Michał Rachoń. The case relates to the publication of recordings of conversations involving, among others, Donald Tusk and Roman Giertych. The Program Director of TV Republika remains protected by journalistic privilege. “No talking to a crypto-dictatorship,” he wrote on X.
In May this year, court assessor Krzysztof Kołodziejczyk ruled that Michał Rachoń should be released from the obligation to maintain journalistic confidentiality regarding the published recordings. The decision was not final, and Rachoń’s legal representative appealed it.
The appeal filed by attorney Artur Wdowczyk has now been upheld by Judge Mariusz Iwaszko of the 10th Criminal Appeals Division of the District Court in Warsaw.
The court ruled to “dismiss the prosecutor’s motion seeking to release journalist Michał Rachoń from the obligation to maintain journalistic privilege.”
“The court has thrown into the trash the attempts by the prosecutor’s office and attorney Roman Giertych to strip me of journalistic privilege in the case concerning the recordings of conversations involving Donald Tusk, Roman Giertych, Jarosław Kurski, Stanisław Gawłowski, Leszek Czarnecki, and the rest of that crowd,” Rachoń said.
In June 2025, TV Republika published the “Giertych Tapes.” One of the released recordings featured attorney Roman Giertych speaking with Leszek Czarnecki, the businessman at the center of the GetBack scandal. During the conversation, Czarnecki stated that if Law and Justice (PiS) did not win the 2019 parliamentary election, he “would have no problem pursuing legal cases in Poland.” The recording also captured the two men discussing a meeting at a luxury hotel in Venice, where the cheapest room reportedly cost more than PLN 10,000 per night.