The National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) announced Monday that its chair, Dr. Agnieszka Glapiak, has launched an inquiry in response to complaints about Telewizja Republika’s coverage of the events in Kraków.
In a statement published Monday on the X platform, the council explained that this procedure is applied to all complaints received by KRRiT that meet formal requirements.
It also said that an official letter will be sent to the broadcaster asking for explanations in response to viewers’ allegations, along with a copy of the recording. “After receiving the materials from the broadcaster, a detailed analysis will be carried out in light of the provisions of the Broadcasting Act, and then a decision will be made,” the statement said.
The Broadcasting Act sets the time frame within which KRRiT may act. “The KRRiT chair has a limited amount of time to impose financial penalties on a broadcaster. For radio and television programs, it is one year from the date of the violation,” the council explained.
Broadcasters are required to keep programs, advertisements and other transmissions on storage media for 28 days from the date they were aired. KRRiT has the right to ask a broadcaster to provide specific source material.
Minister of Culture Marta Cienkowska was among those who announced filing a complaint with KRRiT against Telewizja Republika. “I have just sent a complaint to KRRiT about Telewizja Republika’s coverage from Kraków: reporting unverified information, accusations against the police and messaging that could heighten panic. Tragedy is not fuel for political propaganda. KRRiT must investigate this. There must be consequences for violations,” the head of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (MKiDN) wrote in a post published Sunday on X.
KRRiT member Tadeusz Kowalski, a University of Warsaw professor, also called on Telewizja Republika to “stop broadcasting content that may encourage behavior endangering health or safety.” In a statement sent to PAP on Sunday, he said that Telewizja Republika is airing material that violates Article 18 of the Broadcasting Act.
“Yesterday’s (Nov. 7) remarks by Tomasz Sakiewicz on Telewizja Republika show how far the radicalization has gone. After the terrorist attack in Kraków, he claimed on the station’s air that there were no police at the scene because their reserves had been sent to Warsaw, to the Constitutional Tribunal. In fact, the police intervened immediately, and two officers were seriously wounded,” the statement said. Kowalski also stressed that such words undermine trust in the services and turn a tragedy into a tool of political struggle.
KRRiT currently consists of Agnieszka Glapiak (chair; appointed by the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, in 2022), Hanna Karp (appointed by President Andrzej Duda in 2022), Tadeusz Kowalski (appointed by the Senate in 2022) and Marzena Paczuska (appointed by President Andrzej Duda in 2022). Maciej Świrski, appointed by the Sejm in 2022, is also a council member, but in July 2025 he was suspended from his duties and cannot exercise his mandate after the Sejm voted to bring him before the State Tribunal.
On Saturday shortly after 3 p.m., a masked 24-year-old drove a car onto Kraków’s Main Square and began shooting at people there. He was wounded in an exchange of fire with police and detained. Six people were killed and 16 were injured in the attack, including two police officers and the attacker. The perpetrator died in a hospital early Monday. (PAP)
