Public TV admits mistake over presidential candidate's 2018 interview
A local branch of Polish public television TVP has said that the 2018 interview with Karol Nawrocki, the current presidential candidate of the main opposition party, the socially-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), was "dubious journalism."
Polish media reported earlier this month that in 2018 Nawrocki gave an interview to the TVP branch in the coastal city of Gdansk pretending to be Tadeusz Batyr, a pen name he used for a book about a local gangster, with his face blurred and voice altered.
In the interview, the fictitious Batyr praised research work by Nawrocki, who was at the time the director of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk. Later Nawrocki as himself praised Batyr's book on social media.
Krzysztof Brejza, a member of the European Parliament representing the ruling centrist party, the Civic Coalition, recently asked TVP Gdansk about the interview.
The head of the local TV station said in a letter to Brejza that the interview was an example of "dubious journalism," as reported by Brejza on his X account on Friday.
"On the other hand, the failure on the part of the interviewers to respond to what the guest answered should be regarded as professional negligence, if only because it created an opportunity for the interviewee to self-promote and further misled the audience of the broadcast," the letter read.
Nawrocki, who is not a member of PiS but is affiliated with and supported by the party, shrugged off the reports and said that using a pen name was nothing unusual. However, he failed to explain why he pretended to be someone else to praise himself on public television.
Nawrocki has recently seen his presidential chances threatened by a far-right hopeful, Slawomir Mentzen, who is catching up with him very quickly, largely on the back of Mentzen's successful social media campaign. However, KO's Rafal Trzaskowski is still leading the presidential polls. (PAP)
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