“One cannot live in a state where an officer of the special services plans to murder a journalist,” emphasized editor Tomasz Sakiewicz. The president of Telewizja Republika went to the prosecutor’s office together with journalist Piotr Nisztor to file a formal notification after it was revealed that a journalist from the station had been the target of a planned killing by an officer of the State Protection Service.
On Tuesday, Telewizja Republika disclosed a recording of a conversation involving a State Protection Service officer, Lt. Col. Wojciech B., codenamed “Biszkopt.” In the recording, the uniformed officer openly stated that he would “break the legs” of journalist Piotr Nisztor for his work. In the further part of the conversation, he described in detail the planned torture and even discussed how to conceal the body.
The State Protection Service initiated disciplinary proceedings against the officer, and the case was referred to the prosecutor’s office. On Wednesday, editor Nisztor went to the Prokuratura Rejonowa w Warszawie to give testimony. He was accompanied by Telewizja Republika’s president, Tomasz Sakiewicz.
“After a brief conversation with the prosecutor, I agreed that following Piotr Nisztor’s testimony, within the next several dozen hours, I would submit a notification on behalf of the company. We want this matter to proceed as quickly as possible. The case is so drastic and so serious that at this moment even journalists who are unfriendly toward us are horrified by the situation. I have never seen such a strong reaction before,” he said, adding that an attack on a Republika journalist is an attack on the station itself.
What will the prosecutor’s office do?
As he reported, there are currently no grounds to believe that the case is being treated lightly.
“But we know that there are authorities above the prosecutor, and we will see what they do with it. Very often this is how it looks: in cases of attempts to intimidate us, the prosecutor initially shows interest, and then, after some time, the cases disappear or are derailed. Unfortunately, this political pressure is very significant. Let us hope that this time they realize that matters have gone too far,” he stated.
“One cannot live in a state where an officer of the special services plans the murder of a journalist, torture, an attack on one of our colleagues. Here, the Rubicon has already been crossed,” he stressed.