The new Polish executive led by Donald Tusk took office on December 13, a date that reminds Poles of the day in 1981 when General Jaruzelski introduced martial law. And just a week later, a very serious event occurred that precisely echoes the times of Jaruzelski: the Minister of Culture sent the police to the headquarters of TVP Info to expel its directors. This beginning demonstrated how the new Polish prime minister, backed by Ursula von der Leyen and Berlin, intended to govern.

Tusk wanted to turn public media into tools for his propaganda, already having at his service the television station TVN (the private television openly aligned with left-wing liberal circles, which is anti-Polish), Onet (the largest Polish-language internet portal, but controlled by the Germans), and the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza (Electoral Gazette, openly positioned against conservative, patriotic, and Catholic circles).

Thanks to the mobilization of a society that would not tolerate the omnipresent government propaganda, and to journalists who refused to become “servants of the regime,” numerous independent media outlets have developed. Among them, the most important entity is the television station Republic (TV Republika), directed by Tomasz Sakiewicz.

Unfortunately, all independent media that unmask the deceptive government propaganda and break the monopoly of pro-government media have become the targets of various forms of harassment, including the persecution of their journalists.

There is also an economic aspect to the matter. Tusk, who wanted to close public television and placed it “into liquidation,” is now spending more than three billion zlotys to maintain it, since it has become a powerful tool for government propaganda. In contrast, independent media must manage to support themselves. TV Republika operates thanks to donations from a vast number of people who care about having a news source that is not submissive to the government.

Despite having an audience of millions of people, TV Republika faces difficulties in securing advertising slots. Anyone who “dares” to place advertising on this broadcaster is threatened by the authorities—a method resembling a mafia-style blackmail to “starve out” TV Republika.

For a long time, TV Republika journalists were not admitted to the Prime Minister’s press conferences. Tusk evidently does not want to hear “uncomfortable” questions. But what is most shocking is that journalists from independent media frequently receive threats. Last year, a disturbing event occurred: an agent of the State Protection Service (SOP) threatened investigative journalist Piotr Nisztor over his publications, declaring that he would “break his legs,” describing the planned tortures in detail, and even talking about how to hide the corpse. While it is true that the SOP agent was subsequently suspended from service, this fact demonstrates the conditions under which independent journalists work.

Recently, there has been an intensification of police activity against journalists from TV Republika and other media outlets. These interventions were reportedly carried out under the pretext of receiving reports indicating, among other things, disturbing or dangerous situations in the private homes of these media employees. These are police interventions lacking any clear legal justification.

On May 15, the police also raided the office of the president of TV Republika, Sakiewicz, who later released a statement:

“Today, the police forcibly broke into my office in Warsaw, where I have been running my business for years. They beat and handcuffed my assistant. The only reason for this brutal treatment was that she asked the officers to identify themselves. Then, without any authorization and without the owner’s presence, a search was conducted. The assistant was taken away and abandoned in the middle of the street. She had visible injuries. Similar actions have been carried out against other Republika journalists and against other news outlets for dozens of hours.”

It should be clarified that the officers were not wearing identification badges, even though having them on the uniform is mandatory. Sakiewicz’s assistant was handcuffed behind her back, a technique used against truly dangerous individuals. The officer proceeded to search the apartment on his own initiative and without a warrant. No report was drafted, nor were any instructions provided on where to find information about the intervention. The officers fled, refusing to provide their details.

Shortly afterward, in the middle of the night, officers also arrived at Sakiewicz’s home in Kraków. Individuals in plain clothes showed up at the residence, showing their identification badges from a distance to the children’s nanny. They said they were looking for a person with the same last name but a different first name —another clear intimidatory gesture toward the Sakiewicz family. Similar actions have been carried out against other TV Republika journalists and against newsrooms for dozens of hours. The authorities are using the pretext of anonymous and obviously false emergency messages—evidently well-planned—to raid journalists’ homes.

Commenting on these serious acts of intimidation, Slawomir Cenckiewicz, former head of the National Security Bureau, addressed Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the Minister of the Interior and Administration Marcin Kierwiński, and Tomasz Siemoniak, coordinator of the secret services, with an appeal “not to downplay this series of provocations that have been affecting many people and TV Republika for several days. The current situation requires a clear response, not public mockery or silence!”

Cenckiewicz was alluding to the disgusting campaign of hate and mockery unleashed on social media against Sakiewicz’s assaulted assistant, where she was presented as his mistress or a prostitute.

Unfortunately, the provocations continue! It is not only television broadcasters independent of the government that are victims of these provocations—the police showed up at the headquarters of another independent television station, wPolsce24—but also at the residence of the leader of the Law and Justice party, Jarosław Kaczyński. Following an anonymous report regarding the presence of explosives in the garden of Kaczyński’s house, a police patrol appeared in front of his home to search the surrounding area. This police intervention at Kaczyński’s house in Warsaw must be added to the long list of provocations perpetrated against the opposition and independent media.

But this is the Poland of Tusk’s crypto-dictatorship.

The article in Italian was published on the website of La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana: https://lanuovabq.it/it/polonia-si-aggrava-la-persecuzione-dei-media-indipendenti