Polish regulator fines public TV for documentary about influential priest

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The National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT), a state regulator, has fined public broadcaster TVP 145,000 zloty (€33,690) for airing what KRRiT president Maciej Świrski says were “completely false” claims about alleged irregularities relating to the activities of Catholic priest and media mogul Tadeusz Rydzyk.

One of the documentary’s authors, Bianka Mikołajewska, says she is considering legal action in response, arguing that the fine was issued without identifying any factual inaccuracies in the report and damages her professional reputation.

Świrski is an appointee of Poland’s former conservative ruling party, Law and Justice (PiS), while Rydzyk has long been a close ally of PiS. A leading figure from the current ruling coalition has criticised Świrski’s decision as an example of “ideology winning over common sense and facts”.

The programme in question, called Rydzyk’s Masterpiece (Arcydzieło Rydzyka), examined the construction of the Memory and Identity Museum in Toruń, a project backed by Rydzyk’s Lux Veritatis Foundation and dedicated to preserving the legacy of Polish Pope John Paul II.

The museum was established in 2018, when PiS was in government, through an agreement between the culture ministry and the Lux Veritatis Foundation. Since a change in government in 2023, the new administration has taken legal steps to annul that agreement.

In December, officers from the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) raided the foundation’s offices in Warsaw, Toruń and Wrocław to investigate suspected abuse of power involving the museum’s public financing.

Świrski said the KRRiT received complaints from listeners of Radio Maryja, a Catholic broadcaster founded by Rydzyk, alleging that TVP’s documentary contained “slander and incitement to hatred based on prejudice against religion”, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

After looking into the complaints, the KRRiT found that TVP’s “report presented in a completely false way the work of Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, in the form of the Museum of Memory and Identity, and that therefore a penalty was imposed”.

The decision is subject to appeal. While TVP itself has not yet commented, one of the journalists behind the documentary, Bianka Mikołajewska, said she is weighing legal action, claiming the “unfounded penalty” undermines her journalistic integrity and lacks a factual basis.

“The Memory and Identity Museum, the Lux Veritatis Foundation and the authors of complaints to the KRRiT have not pointed out any untrue information in the material we produced,” she said, adding she would soon confirm her next steps.

Mikołajewska first reported on 7 April that Świrski had decided to fine TVP over the documentary, though the penalty amount was unknown at the time.

Among the complaints that Mikołajewska said were taken into account by the KRRiT was one that the documentary failed to compare the construction of the Museum of Memory and Identity to that of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, and another claiming the programme was an “attack on Catholics”.

After today’s announcement of the fine, Krzysztof Brejza, a politician from Poland’s main ruling party, Civic Platform (PO), tweeted that the “PiS-controlled KRRiT” had allowed “ideology to win over common sense and facts”.

The fine against TVP follows a similar decision last year, when the KRRiT penalised Poland’s largest private broadcaster, TVN, for its own critical report on Rydzyk. The council imposed a 142,800 zloty fine.

TVN’s programme alleged Rydzyk had long evaded consequences for actions that sparked public outrage, including remarks viewed as antisemitic or excusing child abuse.

Under Świrski’s leadership, the KRRiT has issued punishments against a number of media outlets seen as critical of PiS. Courts have overturned several of its recent decisions, including penalties against Radio Zet and TOK FM.

Last year, the then US ambassador criticised the KRRiT for delays in renewing the broadcasting licence of a channel belonging to TVN, which itself is owned by American media conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery.

Two months earlier, the KRRiT fined TVN 550,000 zloty over a documentary investigating the late Pope John Paul II’s handling of child sex abuse within the Catholic Church – a decision the broadcaster condemned as censorship. TVN paid the fine a month later, in April 2024.

Meanwhile, Poland’s ruling coalition has initiated proceedings to bring Świrski before the State Tribunal, accusing him of making politically motivated decisions against private media he perceived as hostile to PiS and of withholding money from public media after the new government took office.

Świrski has rejected the accusations against him, claiming that they are themselves politically motivated. Meanwhile, PiS has accused the current government of seeking to undermine critical media, including earlier this month when a KRRiT decision to award licences to two conservative broadcasters was overturned.

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: Mikołaj Bujak/IPN (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.