The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has released a campaign spot with a fragment of a "Fakty" TVN journalist's report. In a statement released in response to the video, TVN24 stressed that "such actions undermine the reliability and independence of the media, and simply constitute an appropriation of someone else's property".
PiS published a campaign spot on Wednesday (August 16) in which it used video footage of Tuesday's Armed Forces Day parade and of events that took place in 2021 at Poland's border with Belarus. At the time, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko sparked a migrant crisis by coordinating large groups of immigrants and pushing them towards the country's borders with Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.
In the video, PiS also used a fragment of a news report by "Fakty" TVN' correspondent Andrzej Zaucha, who had been covering the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border. In his piece, Zaucha had said a uniformed man, who did not present his credentials, would prevent the reporter from entering the border area, failing to provide any reason for that.
TVN24: we strongly protest
The TVN24 editorial team said in a statement published on Wednesday it strongly protests against "unlawful use of editorial materials and images of TVN journalists in PiS's party and election propaganda".
"Such actions undermine the reliability and independence of the media, and simply constitute an appropriation of someone else's property," TVN24 added.
Grzegorz Kajdanowicz sues PiS
"Fakty" TVN anchor Grzegorz Kajdanowicz has sued the PiS party over a series of videos, that have been published since June 4, in which his image was used without his consent. The videos were about the June 4 march of opposition supporters and included fragments of "Fakty" TVN editions hosted by Kajdanowicz.
On June 29, acting through his plenipotentiary, the journalist called upon PiS to willingly remove the content described in the motion and issue an apology. On July 10, the plenipotentiary's office received a letter, signed by PiS secretary general Krzysztof Sobolewski, with a refusal to comply with the request. The journalist, therefore, decided on July 25 to file a personal rights violation lawsuit at the Regional Court in Warsaw.
According to Grzegorz Kajdanowicz, his personal rights have been violated through the publication of content edited in a way that "falsely suggest he promotes and supports hate speech". Furthermore, another video was to also suggest false claims about the journalist, as his words were placed next to homophobic comments by other people.
It was underscored that the use of the journalist's image violated his good name, honor, and journalistic reputation.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, tvn24.pl