Tusk sues Polish state TV for presenting him as “target” for “physical attacks”

Donald Tusk, the head of Poland’s main opposition party, is suing Polish public broadcaster TVP over repeatedly presenting him outlined in a red glow and with a focus mark resembling the sight of a gun on his chest in news programmes.

Tusk is demanding an apology from TVP and 30,000 zloty (€6,400) in compensation, to be paid to an aid organisation, as well as a ban on presenting him this way for a year. The lawsuit quotes an expert opinion stating that such presentation “may encourage physical attacks on him”.

In a separate lawsuit, Tusk, the leader of the Civic Platform (PO) party, is also suing state TV over “manipulations and distortions” in a documentary presenting the Russian policy of Poland’s government, in which he was prime minister between 2007 and 2015.

Earlier this week, it was announced that Tusk was under protection from the state security services after police informed him that the “threat of an assassination attempt” on him is “real and concrete as never before”.

“Each week in the mail and on social media I find threats referring to my close ones as well as death sentences and information about assassination attempts on me,” he said.

The lawsuit, featuring 28 screenshots and 28 recordings from TVP’s flagship evening news programme showing Tusk with a focus over his chest and in a red glow as evidence, was announced by PO spokesman Jan Grabiec.

“The target aimed at Donald Tusk is a permanent element of vicious attacks on Wiadomości,” Grabiec wrote, adding that “according to the opinion of a media expert, presenting such an image dozens of times ‘justifies violence and provokes aggressive actions'”.

The head of the body responsible for news in public media, Jarosław Olechowski, responded by calling the accusations “absurd”, arguing that the presentation used by TVP was a very popular method used by numerous broadcasters to show images from press conferences.

The second lawsuit concerns the programme “Our man in Warsaw” produced by state TV and broadcast on TVP1 and TVP Info in April this year and made available online presenting Polish-Russian relations during Tusk’s government.

According to Tusk’s representative, quoted by Gazeta.pl, the documentary “was prepared, spread and promoted to fit a pre-determined theory about hostility and co-responsibility [of Tusk] for the war in Ukraine.” The production, they claim, presents “an alternative reality”.

In this case, the opposition leader demanded an apology and that the film be removed from the internet.

“I understand that this film might be inconvenient for Tusk but it is not a wishlist. In Germany when someone criticises Angela Merkel, no one threatens the journalists,” said the documentary maker, Marcin Tulicki, in response to news of the lawsuit.

Last year analysis for a media news website found that since Tusk’s return as leader of Poland’s main opposition party, state television broadcast negative coverage of him virtually every day.

Between 3 July and 3 August 2021, 78 reports on the Wiadomości news show featured Tusk, and 75 (96%) of those presented him negatively, four segments showed Tusk neutrally and none presented him in a positive light.

While public broadcasters in Poland have always been under the influence of whichever parties are in power, a number of media watchdogs and commentators have noted that the current politicisation of state TV is unprecedented in the post-communist era, and in violation of public media’s statutory obligation to be neutral.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls TVP a “government propaganda mouthpiece”. Under PiS’s rule, Poland has fallen from its highest ever position of 18th in RSF’s annual World Press Freedom Index to its lowest ever position of 64th last year.

The government and its supporters, however, argue that changes at public broadcasters are part of a necessary rebalancing of Poland’s media landscape, which they claim was previously dominated by opposition-supporting outlets, some of which have foreign ownership.

Main image credit: Kancelaria Premiera/ Flickr

Agnieszka Wądołowska

Agnieszka Wądołowska is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She has previously worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie Obcasy, Duży Format, Midrasz and Kultura Liberalna