Czarzasty asks broadcast regulator to fine TV Republika over Kraków attack coverage

A request for a fine

Sejm Speaker Włodzimierz Czarzasty has asked the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) to open proceedings that could end in a financial penalty against Telewizja Republika. He published the letter, addressed to KRRiT chair Agnieszka Glapiak, on X on Tuesday, 10 November 2026. The letter invokes article 53 of the broadcasting act, which provides for penalties, and article 18, which bars programmes from promoting actions against the law, Poland's raison d'état, or views against morality and the public good. Czarzasty's post was brief and pointed to the letter itself, which he framed as a request to punish the station.

“I have asked the KRRiT to punish Republika. Everyone knows what for.”

The trigger is Republika's coverage of the terrorist attack in Kraków on 7 November 2026, which the letter says included content that damaged the good name of police officers responsible for public safety.

The attack and the broadcasts

The attack took place around 15:00 on the Main Market Square in Kraków on Saturday, 7 November. According to one outlet's account, a masked 24-year-old drove onto the square and opened fire on passers-by, then collided with another vehicle at the junction of Dietla and Stradomska streets and shot at police officers after leaving his car. Republika's editor-in-chief Tomasz Sakiewicz reported live from the square that day and said there were no police on the scene, adding that Kraków's reserves had been sent to Warsaw. The police union disputes this account and says a plainclothes officer wearing a "POLICJA" armband was visible just behind the reporter, carrying out security tasks. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński told a press conference that the attacker had been fascinated by extreme right-wing ideologies.

The police union complaint

The police trade union Policyjna Solidarność filed a complaint with KRRiT chair Glapiak about Sakiewicz's live report, according to its statement. The complaint accuses the station of spreading "drastic disinformation" during an ongoing crisis, deliberately harming the good name of the police and causing unjustified panic. It argues that the claims about an absent police presence are contradicted by recordings from the square. According to the union, officers reacted immediately, pursued the attacker and confronted him directly, and two of them were seriously injured and taken to hospital. The union's complaint is a second formal action against the station's coverage, following Czarzasty's request.

Government response and next steps

Government spokesman Adam Szłapka told a press conference on Tuesday that Republika had not been invited to a government event and had not received accreditation for it. wPolsce24 editor-in-chief Jacek Karnowski wrote on X on 8 November that his channel would support Republika if the authorities tried to close it. He argued that the government wants an information monopoly and that, if errors led to closures, TVN would long ago have been off the air. No decision by the KRRiT has been reported so far, and Czarzasty's letter asks the regulator to act without delay.