Republika publishing head Olechowski charged over prosecutor's office entry, placed under police supervision

Charge over the May entry

Prosecutors charged Jarosław Olechowski, head of publishers at TV Republika, on Friday, 13 November 2026, with violating domestic peace under Article 193 of the penal code. The National Prosecutor's Office says the charge concerns his entry on 20 May 2026 into the protected zone of its Warsaw building at ul. Postępu 3, made without an access card and without the required baggage and pyrotechnic checks. Investigators also allege that he stayed inside after Prison Service officers demanded that he leave. The incident happened while Republika's president, Tomasz Sakiewicz, was being questioned as a witness that day. Sakiewicz said Olechowski entered on the invitation of prosecutor Tomasz Janeczek, who was later suspended, and several PiS deputies who had announced a parliamentary inspection were also in the building.

Questioning and police supervision

Olechowski said after the hearing that he received the summons on the afternoon of 12 November for questioning later that Friday, and that his lawyers' request for a postponement was refused by prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek. The questioning lasted about two hours, during which he dictated his objections to Wrzosek's conduct, did not admit the offence and refused to give testimony. His lawyers have asked for Wrzosek to be removed from the case, and Olechowski argued that the hearing should have waited for that decision. Prosecutors imposed police supervision as a preventive measure to secure the proceedings. wPolityce.pl reports that he must now report to a police station once a week.

Reactions from Republika and the political right

Jacek Karnowski, editor-in-chief of wPolsce24, called the supervision a new level of repression. He also pointed to an announcement by Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz that the government would go after the National Broadcasting Council, KRRiT, which Karnowski read as an attack on the media. Sakiewicz called the summons a last-minute move that left almost no chance of a defence.

“It is not about the entry, the discomfort or the coffee drunk with prosecutor Janeczek, but about the whole series of repressions falling on us.”

Prosecutor general Waldemar Żurek wrote on X that the charge concerned an employee of TV Republika and stressed a basic principle.

“A press card is not a pass allowing entry anywhere and under any circumstances.”

Judge Dagmara Pawełczyk-Woicka, former chair of the National Council of the Judiciary, wrote on X that other journalists had also received summonses as suspects. She added that large companies were pulling advertising, citing InPost as an example, and her verdict on the situation was blunt.

“All of this looks like a massive witch hunt against independent media.”

What comes next

Miłosz Kłeczek, another Republika journalist who was earlier summoned as a suspect, and Michał Rachoń have been summoned in the same case for Monday, 16 November. The investigation into the 20 May entry is run by a team led by Ewa Wrzosek. The motion to remove her from the case has been filed, and no ruling on it is reported. Olechowski has said his rights were violated and described the process as prosecutorial harassment.