Court overturns Polish TV station’s fine for report on John Paul II’s response to child sex abuse

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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 overturned a decision by Poland’s media regulator to fine TVN, a large, American-owned private broadcaster, for airing a documentary which alleged that Pope John Paul II showed neglect in dealing with child sex abuse cases in the Catholic church while still a bishop in Poland.

In 2024, the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) fined TVN 550,000 zloty (currently €128,000) for a documentary it had screened the previous year. The decision was issued by the council’s then head, Maciej Świrski, an appointee of the former national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government.

He argued that the programme “was contrary to the law and social good, harming religious feelings, in this particular case of Catholics, and disinforming public opinion”. Offending religious feelings is a crime in Poland, carrying a potential prison sentence of up to two years.

TVN condemned the KRRiT’s decision at the time, saying that it “has no basis in fact, undermines media freedom, and is an attempt to impose censorship…and intimidate our editorial offices”.

Now, the station has announced that the fine has been overturned by the district court in Warsaw, which found that the documentary adhered to journalistic standards and did not constitute an attack on the church. It also deemed that reporting on issues relating to the protection of minors is a cornerstone of democracy.

In response, the KRRiT’s current chairwoman, Agnieszka Glapiak, said that the court’s ruling “is incomprehensible and difficult to accept” and announced the council would appeal against it.

TVN’s documentary claimed that the future Pope John Paul II, while still archbishop of Kraków, knew of sexual abuse by priests subordinate to him but allowed them to continue working in the church and may even have tried to prevent the authorities from learning of their crimes

The documentary focused on how the pope dealt with three particular cases of priests responsible for abuse, presenting new evidence, including accounts directly from victims and witnesses, files from the communist-era security services, and an interview filmed undercover with a former employee of the Kraków diocese.

The broadcast sparked a debate and some calls to re-evaluate the legacy of John Paul II, who is a national hero in Poland due to both his religious leadership and his role in opposing communism.

But it was also criticised by many conservative figures, including from the PiS government that was then in power. The party’s chairman, Jarosław Kaczyński, described the report as a “scandalous, defamatory, coordinated media witch hunt aiming to destroy the authority of the greatest Pole in our history”.

At the time, the KRRiT revealed that it had received a record number of more than 6,000 complaints about the programme, signed by almost 40,000 Polish citizens.

Its investigation found that TVN’s material “failed to meet the standards of journalistic ethics” and was “biased, prepared with a selective selection of sources, and an ahistorical interpretation of facts and events” with “the entire narrative adjusted to a previously stated thesis”.

The KRRiT criticised the programme-makers for relying on files produced by the communist-era security services – who were involved in repression of the church – and claimed that they had failed to consult other sources.

Under Świrski’s leadership, the KRRiT issued fines against a number of media outlets seen as hostile towards PiS. Last year, he was suspended from his duties after parliament voted to put him on trial for alleged impartial and politically motivated decisions against private broadcasters.

While Catholicism remains the dominant religion in Poland, with around 70% of the population identifying as Catholic, the church has faced criticism in recent years over the revelation of historic child sex abuse by members of the clergy and negligence by the church hierarchy in dealing with the issue.

The Vatican has taken disciplinary action against a number of Polish bishops for their neglect. Last month, for the first time, a Polish bishop went on trial for allegedly failing to properly report allegations of child sex abuse. If found guilty, he could face up to three years in prison.

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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: Poland in the EU (under CC BY 3.0 PL)

Olivier Sorgho

Olivier Sorgho is senior editor at Notes from Poland, covering politics, business and society. He previously worked for Reuters.