A Polish journalist was charged with disturbing the peace at a Warsaw demonstration he was covering as a reporter, asking questions of participants at the gathering.
Yesterday, Szymon Szereda, a news reporter for the independent conservative broadcaster wPolsce24 was quizzed by officers at a police station about his alleged disruption of a June 27 protest. If found guilty, he could be fined or even imprisoned.
The demonstration was held outside the Supreme Court building in Warsaw in support of protests against the court verifying the election result of the presidential elections.
That saw the opposition Conservatives (PiS) candidate Karol Nawrocki beat Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centre-left Civic Coalition (KO) candidate Rafał Trzaskowski in the second round run-off on June 1.
Senior figures from the KO for weeks claimed there were irregularities in the counting of votes and that the Supreme Court should refuse to sign off on the election result.
Szereda was commissioned by wPolsce24 to cover the event and proceeded to attempt to put questions to the demonstrators.
He has now been charged with disrupting the protest because some taking part complained about his presence. In response, a police officer took down the journalist’s details.
Szereda told Brussels Signal yesterday that he rejects the charge and considers it an attempt to “intimidate, repress and silence journalists who challenge the present government”.
“As far as this charge of disrupting the demonstration is concerned, it is clearly absurd as it is based on the fact that I was asking questions of those attending the event, several of whom were political activists used to answering questions from the media,” he said.
Szereda says he did not clash with the police at the event.
“Once I learned that the organisers of the demonstration were seeking to exclude me, I made my self available to the police and followed their instructions.”
In September, though, Szereda’s grandmother, living at the address at which the journalist is registered, was visited at home by police. They were seeking the whereabouts of her grandson and he was later summoned to appear at a police station.
“They did not tell my grandmother what it was they were seeking me for nor did they tell me when summoning me to the police station.”
He said he would use in his defence the opinion of Ombudsman Adam Bodnar, who later became Tusk’s justice minister (2023-2025). In 2022 he stated that journalists had the right to cover events in public spaces without the need for a permit.
Szereda said he suspected the case brought against him by the police was political revenge on the part of the present ruling party.
“During the presidential election campaign I covered the Trzaskowski campaign [the defeated Tusk party candidate] and was warned by some politicians on his campaign team that I would ‘pay’ for coverage they felt was negative about their man.”
He added that several other journalists have been questioned for covering demonstrations.
For instance, a journalist from TV Republika has been taken to court for removing a placard that insulted the victims of the Smolensk air disaster, despite the fact that it was placed illegally.
“It maybe just coincidence but the TV Republika journalist was charged by the same police officer who made out the charge against me,” said Szereda.
“The authorities want to show people that opposition to the present government entails the risk of being prosecuted, even if one is just doing one’s job” he said.
He added that at the demonstration, it was he and other journalists who were insulted and threatened by the protesters.
“I was repeatedly insulted and even jostled by the demonstrators who disapprove of the television channel I work for,” he claimed.
Jacek Karnowski, chief editor of wPolsce24 television, defended his reporter.
“On the day of the Supreme Court hearing to consider challenges to the presidential election result there were two demonstrations. One for the opposition, which urged the court to sign off on the election and one for the pro-government side which wanted the election annulled.,” said Karnowski.
“Our man went to cover the pro-government demonstration armed with a microphone and camera and has been charged for asking questions doing his job in a public space at an event open to the public,” he added.
“What is the State doing hounding him for just doing his duty to the public?”
Conservative broadcasters wPolsce24 and TV Republika have on multiple occasions been barred from attending Tusk government press briefings on the grounds that they are biased media outlets hostile to the present administration.
The wPolsce24 news channel has seen its viewing figures surge after the incoming Tusk government in December 2023 took control of public broadcaster TVP, purging it of much of its journalistic staff.
The journalists thrown out of TVP found work with TV Republika, wPolsce24 and in the Youtube channel Kanał Zero all of which have flourished as conservative inclined viewers stopped watching TVP. Its news channel, TVP Info, has seen its viewing figures plummeted by more than 60 per cent.
