
13
Dec 2018
Lvl. 2
State replied
Alert created on: 07 Dec 2018
Poland
Attempt to Silence Polish Newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza
Source of threatState
CategoryHarassment and intimidation of journalists
On 3 December 2018, the National Bank of Poland (NBP) filed applications at the District Court in Warsaw as an attempt to silence the coverage of KNF scandal by five journalists working for the daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza. It asked the court to ban (for the duration of the trial) the "dissemination of statements suggesting unlawful activities of the NBP bodies by linking NBP president (Adam Glapiński - ed.) with the KNF affair by the authors of articles”. The bank also requested the removal from both, the paper editions and the online articles, of any content related to the KNF scandal. KNF is Poland's Financial Supervision Authority whose Chairman, Marek Chrzanowski, resigned on 13 November after an article published on Gazeta Wyborcza revealed that Chrzanowski had requested payment from a billionaire bank owner in return for preferential treatment.
Additional Information
- News report on Tok FM: "Czy prezes NBP może cenzurować media? Prof. Paruch broni Adama Glapińskiego"
- Statement from Gazeta Wyborcza: "We will not be silenced. We will fight for free media"
- Mapping Media Freedom report: "Poland: National Bank seeks to censor independent media over financial regulator scandal"
- Bloomberg news report: "Polish Bank Watchdog Quits After Report of a $10 Million Bribe"
State replies
The information provided by the National Bank of Poland