An AI-generated recording featuring Prime Minister Donald Tusk has outraged government spokesperson Adam Szłapka, especially because the short video was aired by TV Republika in a satirical late-night program. “It was clearly presented as satire,” Tomasz Sakiewicz, the station’s president, responds in an interview with niezalezna.pl.
In TV Republika’s satirical program broadcast late at night, hosts Piotr Nisztor and Jarosław Olechjowski announced a satirical segment – an AI-generated recording in which Prime Minister Donald Tusk is stylized as Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski.
“Tusk” addresses the “female and male citizens of the Polish Law-Abiding Republic,” emphasizing that “two years have passed since the introduction of a system of militant democracy throughout the country.” Can this be taken seriously? As it turns out, yes.
“Obvious Hate Speech”
Government spokesperson Adam Szłapka offered a harsh assessment at Tuesday’s press conference.
“This cannot be categorized as disinformation. Jarosław Kaczyński, or earlier, Lech Kaczyński, would have called this the ‘industry of contempt.’ I am not talking about a clip posted by anonymous internet accounts and made with artificial intelligence, but about a station that aspires to be a news television channel,” he argued.
According to the spokesperson, the satirical edit is “obvious hate speech or an industry of contempt.” “TV Republika is known for this. It is so repugnant that it cannot even be called disinformation,” he accused the newsroom.
“Plain Old
TV Republika’s president, Tomasz Sakiewicz, was asked for a comment on the government spokesperson’s criticism of the station.
“At the request of the government spokesperson, we will keep showing it,” he replied.
“We aired this edit in the satirical program Piachem w tryby. It was clearly presented as satire,” Sakiewicz emphasized.
“The claim that this is disinformation resembles the case of journalist Piotr Lisiewicz, who was accused of being Lenin. The court ruled at the time that even a police officer should know that Lenin is dead,” he compared.
“Jaruzelski is also dead, so they could not have been confused, unless they assume their voters don’t know that,” the TV Republika president added.
“Plain old satire – there’s plenty of it on the internet. It’s not our fault that this coalition decided to form its government on December 13 and acts like a December 13 government,” he concluded.