Kraków Prosecutors Open Investigation Into Telewizja Republika Remarks After Terrorist Attack

The Kraków District Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday opened an investigation into statements made on Telewizja Republika after the terrorist attack in Kraków. According to prosecutors, the investigation was opened in a case involving, among other things, defamation.

– It concerns the defamation of Kraków police officers through a statement that police were not at the scene, and through the relaying, in a live report, of information about the involvement of foreigners in the attack on the Main Square (Rynek Główny), Tomasz Waszczuk, spokesman for the Kraków District Prosecutor’s Office, told PAP. He added that the notification came from several private individuals.

– I just got word that the Kraków prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation against me over my reports from the square, because, first, I supposedly committed the crime of racial insult by talking about foreigners. So I ask all experts in the Polish language, anthropology and cultural studies to determine what race a foreigner is. And second, that I said there were no police, but there were, right? There were, the square was full of police, people just maliciously didn’t notice, Tomasz Sakiewicz said in a comment on Telewizja Republika.

– Anyone who made a video just now and posted it claiming there are no police, and there are already thousands of such videos at this point, right? Thousands, from above, from below, from different places, showing that for dozens of minutes there were no police on the square. Aside from that one crime-scene technician in plain clothes. Anyone can be prosecuted, just like me, he added.

On Saturday, an attack took place on Kraków’s Main Square. A 24-year-old man drove a car onto the square and then opened fire on random people.

Tomasz Sakiewicz of Telewizja Republika was on the square at the time. The network was broadcasting live.

During the broadcast, Sakiewicz said that “there are no police on the scene, because probably all of their reserves were taken to Warsaw.” In fact, one police officer was reportedly standing right behind Sakiewicz. He was said to be in plain clothes, wearing a black jacket, cap and balaclava, with a police emblem visible on his left sleeve. “An enormous tragedy, it’s known that some foreigners took part in it,” the editor also said on air. Police maintained that they were at the scene and intervened.

On Thursday afternoon, Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek addressed the matter on the social media platform X. “Freedom of speech does not mean you can thoughtlessly say whatever comes to mind and bear no consequences,” he wrote.

He added that “people must take responsibility for their words,” “especially when they are spoken publicly, to millions of viewers.” In the post, he also recalled what the investigation opened by prosecutors concerns.

“Freedom of speech does not give anyone immunity from legal consequences,” the prosecutor general stressed.

Following complaints about the network’s coverage, the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) announced on Monday that it had launched an inquiry.

Culture Minister Marta Cienkowska was among those who said they had filed a complaint with KRRiT against Telewizja Republika. The complaint concerns unverified information, accusations against police and coverage that could heighten panic.

The Polish Media Council (RPM), in a statement published Sunday, criticized Sakiewicz’s words from Saturday’s broadcast on Telewizja Republika. It called them an “unacceptable exploitation of a tragedy to build a political narrative.”

After the criticism, Sakiewicz wrote on X that, “as the first journalist to begin a live report,” he had drawn attention to “the fact of a complete lack of police.” He admitted that “within sight and range of the camera there was only one crime-scene technician from the police, who undertook to secure the area near one of the victims.” “Seeing what I saw and hearing what I heard, I could not honestly tell viewers anything else” (original spelling), he insisted.

Six people were killed in the Kraków attack and 15 were injured, including two police officers. Overnight on the same day, in the attacker’s apartment in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, police found the bodies of his father, mother and sister with gunshot wounds. The perpetrator of the Kraków attack died in a hospital on Monday. (PAP)