TVP Commission attacks programs which slandered opposition leader

Public television (TVP) Ethics Commission has criticized the material broadcasted by TVP during the summer concerning the declaration of assets by Warsaw's Mayor and Law and Justice leader Lech Kaczyński. According to the Commission the whole affair was unnecessarily exaggerated. The broadcaster based its programs on an article taken from the ruling Democratic Left Alliance daily Trybuna. "Journalists should know the difference between a politically engaged newspaper and the role of public media, which should be based on the democratic control of power," reminded the Commission. Moreover it pointed out that the journalists were using expressions with strong emotional content, like "prosecutor proceedings" or "violating the law". These suggested that the affair should be perceived as a scandal and in the meantime, "The prosecutor neither commenced an official investigation, nor charged Kaczyński with anything". This is not the first attack against Lech Kaczyński from public TV. "All that is done against me and my brother is an audacious political agitation with a scent from the 1950s," claims Kaczyński. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A3) M.M.