Keep our news free from ads and paywalls by making a donation to support our work!
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Police have launched an investigation into public incitement of hatred against Jerzy Owsiak, the head of Poland’s biggest annual charity fundraiser, after he submitted evidence of “very specific threats” against his life.
He claims those threats have been incited against him by conservative television stations and has likened their actions to those that preceded the death of Gdańsk mayor Paweł Adamowicz, who was murdered on stage in 2019 at a concert organised by Owsiak’s charity.
For over 30 years, Owsiak has fronted the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity (WOŚP), a nationwide charity event that every January raises money to buy medical equipment for hospitals. Last year, it raised a record 243 million zloty (€56.9 million).
Yet WOŚP also often face criticism, in particular from conservatives, who have accused Owsiak and his family of benefiting financially from the event and of using it to support political groups and causes he sympathises with.
This year, conservative TV station Republika has been running a campaign calling on people to boycott WOŚP and instead donate to Republika itself.
Ruszyła akcja: „Nie daję Owsiakowi, wspieram Republikę”https://t.co/TMfr1sVHoR
— Tomasz Sakiewicz (@TomaszSakiewicz) January 4, 2025
In a social media post on Tuesday, Oswiak revealed that for several days he and WOŚP had been receiving threats by telephone and email, including someone saying they would shoot him and another relating to the use of a bomb.
“The incitement by Republika and wPolsce24 [another conservative broadcaster] is similar to the manipulation and incitement directed at the mayor of Gdańsk, Paweł Adamowicz, and we know how that ended,” wrote Owsiak.
Adamowicz died on stage at a WOŚP concert, when a man who had been recently released from prison and blamed the authorities for his conviction ran out of the crowd and stabbed him. Many, including Adamowicz’s widow, blamed conservative media for inspiring the killer.
“If I do not live to see tomorrow, remember who incited, who fueled this incredible spiral of lies and hatred, who seeped this hatred into their news: Republika and wPolsce24,” wrote Owsiak yesterday, adding that details of the threats have been reported to police.
Today, Warsaw police confirmed to news website Wirtualna Polska that they had received reports from Owsiak of two suspected crimes: the incitement of hatred in the media against him and threats made against him.
Interior ministry spokesman Jacek Dobrzyński also announced on social media that police are investigating a suspected “crime consisting of publicly inciting hatred against Jerzy Owsiak and the WOŚP Foundation”. He said there can be no “tolerance for spreading hatred”.
Owsiak yesterday also refuted claims made by Republika, wPolsce24 and other conservative media outlets that money raised by WOŚP to support victims of September’s deadly floods in Poland had not been transferred.
Those allegations have also been echoed by figures from the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), Poland’s main opposition party. One of its MPs, Przemysław Czarnek, said that WOŚP’s involvement in helping flood victims is a “huge scandal” that “must be explained”.
Owsiak pokazał, jak miała wyglądać pomoc powodzianom. Przy okazji ponarzekał na "festiwal kłamstw", ale sam o czymś jednak "zapomniał"
— wPolityce.pl (@wPolityce_pl) January 7, 2025
In response to such accusations, WOŚP released figures showing that it has spent almost 40 million zloty on helping flood victims.
The water rescue service in Nysa, one of the towns worst hit by the flooding, told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that it had received support from WOŚP during the disaster. A hospital in Nysa also noted that it had received 19 million zloty from WOŚP to fund the purchase of equipment.
Even Prime Minister Donald Tusk weighed into the debate, criticising Republika’s appeal for people to donate to it instead of WOŚP. “The Great Orchestra collects for children sick with cancer, they are collecting for their media sick with hatred,” he wrote.
Ruszyła akcja pisowskiej telewizji „Nie daję Owsiakowi, wspieram Republikę”. Wielka Orkiestra zbiera na dzieci chore na raka, oni zbierają na swoje media chore na nienawiść. To już u nich tradycja.
— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) January 5, 2025
When PiS was in power from 2015 to 2023, some state bodies began refusing to cooperate with WOŚP. In 2017, public broadcaster TVP decided to stop screening the finale of the fundraiser, which instead switched to private station TVN.
However, despite – or perhaps because – of PiS’s actions, donations to WOŚP surged during the conservative party’s time in power, setting new records every year.
Annual amount of donations collected by WOŚP (source: CelinaWOŚP/Wikimedia Commons, under CC BY-SA 4.0)
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
All image credits: KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
