In the spotlight: Elżbieta Kruk

Just before the Constitutional Tribunal declared that the President had no right to nominate the head of KRRiTV, Kruk decided that Polsat would pay a total fine of zł.1 million for two controversial programs it aired.  The first one, Nieustraszeni (the Polish version of the reality show Fear Factor), featured eating worms, which according to the regulator promoted "behavior which puts the participants' life and health in danger."

However, the biggest controversy was the fine for events that took place on the popular talk show hosted by Kuba Wojewódzki. The host's guest, literature critic and feminist Kazimiera Szczuka, mocked the voice of Magda Buczek, who hosts a program on Radio Maryja and is a founder of children's rosary circles. Buczek is disabled, and has brittle bone syndrome (Osteogenesis Imperfecta). Polsat was thus fined for airing a program in which, according to KRRiTV, participants made fun of both prayers and disabled people.

But it wasn't only Polsat's content that raised the Council's concerns. Kruk accused radio TOK FM of breaking the rules of journalist ethics and not maintaining professional standards when in one of its satire programs, a caller made fun of the President, followed by the host questioning whether the caller had abided by the Catholic Church's teaching to remain celibate before marriage. 

Michał Pakulniewicz