Legislator's middle finger on billboards. Joanna Lichocka demands apology

In February this year, shortly after the lower house had finally voted to green-light a nearly 2-billion-zloty compensation for Polish public media (TVP and Polish Radio), media were buzzing with pictures and videos of Joanna Lichocka showing her middle finger to opposition members in the Sejm Plenary Hall.

Shortly after Lichocka tried to explain herself: "If I wanted to show the middle finger to Civic Platform MPs, who behaved well out of order, I would have done so. I moved the finger under my eye twice, briskly, as I was upset" - she explained.

The Law and Justice MP later declared she was ready to provide a statement before the Sejm Ethics Committee. She also apologised to "all who felt offended". She also accused Civic Platform of launching "a propaganda machine" aimed at misguiding public opinion through the use of freeze-frame technique.

In August, the Sejm Ethics Committee served Lichocka the most severe punishment available - a reprimand. It remains unknown what argumentation was used during the session as it was closed for the media. When we asked deputy Lichocka herself, she said she was "not talking to TVN". She did speak to the Polish Press Agency, however, and argued that the committee "fits into total opposition hate". She added that in her opinion it was nothing more than "political fight".

She also said at the time the Ethics Committee consisted of "three deputies from total opposition" and one from PiS. "It was clear there was no will to find the truth, only following party orders," she argued.

The Ethics Committee consists of four members: chairperson Monika Falej (the Left), deputy chair Jan Łopata (PSL-Kukiz'15), Izabela Mrzygłocka (Civic Coalition) and Jacek Świat (PiS). Due to the absence of Civic Coalition member, deputy Świat had been outvoted by the remaining two members. He was the only one voting against punishing Lichocka.

Marcin Mycielski of the Open Dialogue Foundation has decided to use the picture of Lichocka and place it on billboards. He has also launched a fundraiser to finance this goal. "Together with Bartek Kramek we've decided to use deputy Lichocka's gesture to show the society what the government plans to spend their taxes on," Mycielski told "GW".

He added that over 5,000 donations were paid in, which were then spent on nearly 400 billboards across Poland. "Over 170 displayed the photo of Lichocka's middle finger."

Lichocka, on the other hand, claims her good name was infringed upon. Her lawyers have demanded the campaign organisers cancel the fundraiser, pay 40,000 zloty to Rak'n'Roll Foundation, and apologise to their client.

The campaign authors are expected to apologise for "spreading false content suggesting that she (Lichocka) intended to deprive people fighting cancer of finances for therapy". They are also expected to apologise for "accusing her of bad intentions and portraying her in a mocking manner, as a 'face' of media dispute on public media financing" - "GW" wrote, adding that the call for an apology lacked explanation regarding the meaning of Lichocka's gesture.

Furthermore, it was added that Lichocka was to receive "dozens of death threats and demands for her resignation".

"Wyborcza" wrote that the campaign organisers were not planning to apologise to Lichocka. Bartosz Kramek said "Deputy (Lichocka) has ended her political and media quarantine and decided to remind Poles about her friendly gesture". "We will gladly help her with that. We already declared our readiness to meet in court," he said and added that "Lichocka is the one who should apologise to oncology patients and the whole society".

"We can't pretend that she's not a member of our party, who decided to allocate billions to support propaganda instead of health care, despite huge social protests. Joanna Lichocka was the rapporteur, and thus, the face of the project," Kramek argued.