“If we allow one innocent journalist to be imprisoned and silenced, we will be allowing them to silence all journalists. Leszek Kraskowski is certainly not my fan – he has criticized me many times. That doesn’t bother me at all, even if I believe he was wrong,” Tomasz Sakiewicz, CEO of TV Republika, said on air while commenting on the investigative journalist’s release from custody.
Investigative journalist Leszek Kraskowski was arrested on Saturday, June 6. After spending 27 days in detention, he was released after bail was posted to the prosecutor’s office by the CEO of TV Republika.
Tomasz Sakiewicz appeared on TV Republika shortly after Kraskowski was released.
“Someone from Leszek Kraskowski’s lawyer’s office called me and asked whether we could post bail. Leszek had been deprived of his means of livelihood,” he said.
According to Sakiewicz, “the Kraskowski case was scandalous and a disgrace to Polish journalism.”
“An investigative journalist was imprisoned simply because he exposed a well-known politician. A politician who should already have gone to prison ten times over for various reasons. Kraskowski uncovered a very serious scandal involving him. He had irrefutable evidence,” he recalled.
Sakiewicz also expressed appreciation for a journalist from Gazeta Wyborcza:
“Even Wojciech Czuchnowski, about whom I have had a well-established opinion for many years, behaved decently in this case. Then, apparently from government circles, a very strong signal was sent. Suddenly, journalists who had been pressured began to back away. We never abandoned this case, even when our viewership declined.”
He added:
“If we allow one innocent journalist to be imprisoned and silenced, we will be allowing them to silence all journalists. Leszek Kraskowski is certainly not my fan – he has criticized me many times. That doesn’t bother me at all, even if I believe he was wrong.”
Sakiewicz concluded:
“However, the very fact that a journalist can be imprisoned simply because he stepped on the authorities’ toes smells like communism. And the worst kind at that.”
To recall, investigative journalist Leszek Kraskowski was arrested at the beginning of June, and the District Court in Piaseczno, acting on the prosecutor’s motion, ordered his pretrial detention for three months. Prosecutors charged him with making criminal threats against the Piaseczno District Police Commander and with illegal possession of firearms and ammunition. Today, after 27 days in custody, the prosecution stated that the alleged threats… may, in fact, have been written by someone else.