Conservative newspaper ordered by court to apologise for Tusk “Hitler” cover

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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.

A court has ordered right-wing newspaper Gazeta Polska and its editor Tomasz Sakiewicz to apologise for publishing a cover featuring Prime Minister Donald Tusk – who was then in opposition – that a judge found “clearly associated [him] with Hitler and the Nazis”.

Sakiewicz has condemned the ruling – which can still be appealed – saying that it is reminiscent of the kind of actions taken against the press in Turkey and Belarus.

The cover in question, published in July 2022, shows Tusk with his nose casting a shadow that had been edited by Gazeta Polska to make it look like Hitler’s moustache. The newspaper also portrayed him doing a straight-armed salute.

Beneath Tusk is written “Gott mit uns”, meaning “God with us”, a motto used in the past by the German military, including by Nazi Germany’s Wehrmacht.

The words on the cover were reference to a recent speech by Tusk in which he declared that if “you believe in God, you do not vote for PiS”, referring to the then ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party. Gazeta Polska  is strongly supportive of PiS.

Shortly after the cover was published, Tusk’s centrist Civic Platform (PO) party announced that they would sue the newspaper and its editor. “This cover is so brazen that it cannot be left unanswered, for the good of public life in Poland,” said the party’s spokesman at the time.

In a ruling on Thursday this week, Warsaw’s district court ruled in favour of a lawsuit brought by Tusk himself, who since December 2023 has served as Prime Minister of a coalition government that replaced PiS in power.

The judge, Rafał Wagner, ordered Sakiewicz and the publisher of Gazeta Polska, Niezależne Wydawnictwo Polskie, to publish an apology on its cover within 14 days of the ruling (if it is not appealed) and on its website within seven days.

In his justification, quoted by Polskie Radio, Wagner said that “the defendants spoke a lot about the clenched fist [as] a symbol of leftist opposition, Charlie Chaplin’s moustache, the Teutonic Order”.

“However, the set of symbols used – the outstretched hand, the moustache and the slogan ‘Gott mit uns’ – in Poland in the 21st century are clearly associated with Hitler and the Nazi occupiers and the defendants’ historical arguments will not change this,” he added.

The judge argued that if the press were allowed to insult and humiliate people without limit, this would have a chilling effect. He also said that it can evoke negative emotions of the type that led to the murder of Gdańsk mayor Paweł Adamowicz, a former party colleague of Tusk, in 2019.

“The scheme of action is simple, proven in the history of the world,” said Wagner. “It consists in attributing the worst characteristics to the opponent in a dispute, dehumanising them, and then pushing them out of society.”

“As the late Marian Turski [a Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivor who died this week] used to say, Auschwitz did not fall from the sky,” he continued. “We – judges, lawyers, journalists, politicians – cannot be indifferent. What seems funny to some at the beginning turns out to be tragic in the end, when it is too late.”

The ruling was welcomed by Tusk’s lawyer, Maciej Ślusarek, who said that “the court very strongly and clearly outlined where the boundaries of public debate are”.

“It clearly indicated that freedom of speech and public debate end where there is humiliation, hate and only an attempt at unjustified humiliation and dehumanisation,” he added, quoted by Polskie Radio.

The outcome was, however, condemned by Sakiewicz, who likened it to rulings made in Turkey, Belarus or when Poland was under communist rule. He accused the authorities of trying to implement “censorship”.

The head of the Association of Polish Journalists (SDP), a conservative media body, called the ruling “a violation of the principle of freedom of speech, because it generally serves to censor the media and prosecute journalists who have different views, a different point of view than the ruling government”.

Sakiewicz is additionally the editor-in-chief of TV Republika, a right-wing broadcaster that has also recently faced criticism from the ruling coalition. Last month, a deputy prime minister suggested that the station should have its licence withdrawn for spreading “hate” against its opponents.

In Poland, it is common for individuals to sue those they deem to have offended their good name, demanding an apology. Courts regularly accept such claims and order apologies to be made.

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.

Main image credit: Gazeta Polska

Daniel Tilles

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.