“First there were photos of the editor [Sakiewicz] from Monaco, then altered, falsified invoices, then a signal ‘that we know what was discussed’, then Prime Minister Tusk’s announcement that there would be a secret sitting of the Sejm […], then an escalation during that sitting […] and this must be linked to earlier declarations about shutting down Republika”, said Law and Justice (PiS) MP Bartosz Kownacki in a conversation with Tomasz Sakiewicz. From the politician’s remarks, made on the programme Political coffee (Polityczna kawa), it follows that Donald Tusk has brought out heavy artillery against free media.
On Friday, before the vote in the Sejm on President Karol Nawrocki’s veto regarding the cryptocurrency bill, a classified sitting was held. As revealed by the portal Niezalezna.pl, during the meeting Prime Minister Donald Tusk spoke, among other things, about CPAC Poland being sponsored by Zondacrypto and about TV Republika. After the sitting, opposition MPs, basing their comments on the prime minister’s statements, openly claimed that the head of the station was being surveilled by the security services.
Tomasz Sakiewicz responded to the situation with an unusual initiative titled “Support the government, surveil Sakiewicz”. Details of the action can be found in this text: “The ‘Support the government, surveil Sakiewicz’ initiative has begun.”
“It Was Only a Pretext”
The president of Republika raised the issue of being surveilled by security services during Sunday’s episode of Polityczna Kawa. One of the guests was Law and Justice (PiS) MP Bartosz Kownacki, who spoke openly about the current government’s practices.
Kownacki had no doubt that the government’s recent activity, ostensibly concerning cryptocurrencies, was in fact aimed at attacking both CPAC and Republika. “I have a very low opinion of Prime Minister Tusk, including his intellectual abilities, but not so low that he wouldn’t know what this bill is really about”, he pointed out.
“It was a pretext, because from the moment he took power Donald Tusk has had one task, and it is also his own intention, to shut down free media and to shut down the main opposition party, that is, Law and Justice (PiS), and he is looking for tools to do that, doing it more or less effectively for the last two years. He knows that if free media exist, the dramatic situation […] in the healthcare system, but also in other sectors, will be exposed, and those free media must therefore be silenced”, he said.
“One Must Connect the Scenario”
The PiS MP stressed that he had worked “for quite some time” in the special services and had been a member of the vetting commission. “So what I said after the Sejm sitting does not come from some fantasy of mine but from my experience, from my knowledge of how Poland’s special services operate, or do not operate. I judge their actions very poorly, assuming that this material was even prepared for Prime Minister Tusk by the officers, because even that gives me doubts. It is very poorly prepared, we listened to it, and it was on a embarrassingly low level”, he said.
According to Kownacki, “one must connect a certain scenario”. “First there were photos of the editor [Sakiewicz] from Monaco, then altered, falsified invoices, then a signal ‘that we know what was discussed’, then Prime Minister Tusk’s announcement that there would be a secret sitting of the Sejm […], then an escalation during that sitting […] and this must be linked to earlier declarations about shutting down Republika, because it’s not as if this is something from the last several days. These declarations were made earlier, and it is obvious that the materials ended up online and were later disseminated using the special services”, he said. He reminded that the special services had also been used in the recent presidential campaign.
“[…] Listening to that Sejm sitting, knowing the actual facts regarding cryptocurrencies and also, for example, which entities are sponsored by companies dealing with that sector [that is, the cryptoasset industry], it is clear that this was targeted, so it had a specific purpose and was meant to justify, in some sense, this operation against TV Republika, against the editor, although I dare say that probably other people associated with the station are also being surveilled”, he stated.
Surveillance of Journalists
“As for this individual case you are speaking about, Mr Editor, I think you are a sufficiently well known and popular person that perhaps someone took a photo of you, and artificial intelligence today, really, in the hands of our hostile neighbours too, can work miracles”, said Urszula Pasławska (PSL) to Sakiewicz.
“I have no doubt whatsoever that we are being surveilled and we have a range of evidence which we will be revealing step by step. But using a falsified invoice, that is really an extreme measure, and there should be an immediate investigation into this case”, stated the president of TV Republika.