The head of the National Broadcasting Council lost to Radio ZET. The court overturned the record penalty
The District Court in Warsaw annulled the penalty imposed on the broadcaster of Radio ZET by the head of the National Broadcasting Council, Maciej Świrski. The fine was to amount to almost half a million zlotys.
On Monday, the District Court in Warsaw annulled the penalty imposed by Maciej Świrski, head of the National Broadcasting Council, on Eurozet Radio, the broadcaster of Radio Zet. On August 11 last year, the head of the National Broadcasting Council, arbitrarily and individually, decided to impose a fine of PLN 476,000 on the broadcaster of Radio ZET.
The head of KRRiT, Maciej Świrski, lost to Radio Zet
The fine imposed by the head of the National Broadcasting Council was the highest in the history of Polish radio broadcasting. The District Court in Warsaw agreed with the broadcaster of Radio ZET that the decision on the penalty was issued in violation of the law and the fine itself was grossly excessive.
– This is a victory for the independent media, whose role in a democratic country is to keep an eye on the authorities and provide information to their recipients. The subject of our dispute with the National Broadcasting Council was not money, but values such as freedom of speech and journalistic independence. We are glad that an independent court recognized our right, and therefore the essence of the functioning of the media in a democratic system – commented Mariusz Smolarek, editor-in-chief of Radio ZET, on the judgment. – I am proud that our editorial office did not doubt its journalistic mission for a moment and we did not allow ourselves to be intimidated by the chairman of the National Broadcasting Council. The draconian financial penalty did not have the chilling effect it was probably intended for, he added.
What did Maciej Świrski punish Radio ZET for?
The penalty was imposed after proceedings initiated ex officio regarding the broadcast of messages disinforming the public opinion about the circumstances of the passage of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky through Polish territory. KRRiT explained that the program was broadcast on December 22, 2022 in the Radio Zet program on the news service at 9:00. In a justification, the National Broadcasting Council stated that it became interested in the case in connection with an article on the Radio Zet website.
It was about Mariusz Gierszewski's material “The Americans transported Zełenski in Poland. They did not ask the Polish services for help” of December 22, 2022. According to Świrski, the material misinformed the public opinion.
“The journalist's findings, verified by independent sources, showed that the high-profile scandal involving the police commander's grenade launcher led to a decline in trust in the Polish services. As a result, although the Polish side knew about the arrival of the special train from Ukraine, it was not informed in advance that Volodymyr Zelensky was traveling on it to travel to the USA,” explains Radio ZET.
