Graś and Kulczyk recorded talking about putting pressure on tabloid owner
13:20
Former Polish government spokesman Paweł Graś and late billionaire Jan Kulczyk appear in newly surfaced tapes revealed by Polish daily Do Rzeczy, in which the two discussed the way tabloid newspaper Fakt, owned by the Polish unit of Germany's Ringier Axel Springer, covered issues related to the then governing Civic Platform (PO) and its editorial policies towards Prime Minister Tusk's daughter, Katarzyna Tusk.
The conversation was recorded in April 2014, a month before the European Parliament election. Asked by Kulczyk if there's anything he can do to help, Graś replied that everything is set, but he complained that "the media doesn't appreciate what is going on [in Poland]."
"The newspaper's [Fakt] only objective is to hate and constantly attack the government and the prime minister, it is insane," Graś said. He lamented that the tabloid targeted Donald Tusk's daughter, Katarzyna, a fashion blogger. In the conversation, Kulczyk offered his help by talking to Friede Springer, the widow of media mogul Axel Springer.
"I will arrange a dinner and will go there in a family atmosphere...I understand the circulation, I understand everything, but to attack a child?" Kulczyk said.
Do Rzeczy noted that a few weeks later, editor-in-chief Grzegorz Jankowski left the newspaper and the weekly linked his dismissal to the conversation.
Agnieszka Odanowska, spokeswoman for Ringier Axel Springer Polska, told wirtualnemedia.pl web portal that the company won't engage in the discussion "about the conspiracy theory put forward by Do Rzeczy, which is absurd. The claims that there were political pressures regarding members or heads of the editorial team are not true."
