2025-01-08 14:39 update: 2025-01-08, 14:43
Photo PAP/Jakub Kaczmarczyk
Police have acted in response to the death threats received by Jerzy Owsiak, the founder of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity Foundation (WOSP), and the foundation itself, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration reported Wednesday.
Owsiak, whose foundation has contributed billions of zlotys to Poland's healthcare institutions over the past three decades, shared a post on his Facebook account on Tuesday, referencing a troubling phone call that his foundation had received recently.
The charity leader began his post by referencing that phone call: "- Have I reached Owsiak's Office? - Yes. - He has to be shot, he is an a**hole."
In his post, Owsiak indicated that the threats were "highly specific, involving a bomb in the background and the targeted removal of my person."
According to the head of the foundation, Poland's private right-wing TV stations Telewizja Republika and wPolsce24 are responsible for spreading hate speech against him and his organisation. Owsiak compared it to the "manipulation and hate speech" received by the late Gdansk city mayor Pawel Adamowicz, who was fatally stabbed on stage during the 2019 WOSP finale.
WOSP provided the Warsaw police with the phone numbers and email addresses of the individual responsible for the threats, as noted by Owsiak, who also warned about the potential consequences of these actions.
The long post continued with Owsiak describing the way the two media outlets entered the foundation's headquarters recently, reporting on-air and recording those inside without their consent.
The situation comes after WOSP was lashed with criticism for allegedly holding back dozens of millions of zlotys raised to aid those who suffered deadly floods which struck Poland in September. The accusations appeared after Owsiak received a question from a Tygodnik Solidarnosc right-wing weekly magazine journalist who suggested that the PLN 50 million (EUR 11.7 mln) crowdfunded for the matter were still sitting "in the foundation's bank account."
The head of the charity replied that as soon as the deadly flood reached Poland, the foundation offered money from its account and that these tens of millions were the "foundation's aid."
The situation came weeks after the request sent to the foundation by five politicians representing Poland's right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS) in November, asking WOSP to share, among other things, the list of towns where the aid had been directed and the cost of the aid campaign. In late November, the requested answers were sent to the politicians and published on WOSP's page.
For years, WOSP and its leader have been at odds with the right-wing Polish media and politicians. Under PiS rule, Poland's state-owned broadcaster TVP largely ignored airing the WOSP's annual finales organised in late January. Last year, the WOSP finale collected over PLN 281 million (EUR 65.8 mln) for the country's healthcare needs. (PAP)
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