Government spokesman Adam Szłapka ends briefing after clash with TV Republika reporter

Briefing on disinformation

Government spokesman Adam Szłapka held a press briefing at the Government Information Centre in Warsaw on Tuesday, 13 October, after that day's government meeting. The briefing focused largely on the spread of disinformation by the media, and Szłapka used TV Republika, the station of Tomasz Sakiewicz, as his main example. Behind him a screen showed around a dozen on-screen tickers that the channel had added to its broadcasts in recent days, all concerning attacks on schools the previous week. He showed them one by one, beginning with a ticker that read "Do not send children to school" and continuing to one about parents being afraid to send their children. Other tickers said the Tusk government was helpless in the face of a wave of terror in schools, claimed that attackers were threatening to kill 60 students, and suggested that education minister Barbara Nowacka's "leftist revolution" was harming young people.

Stoking panic

Szłapka said that deliberately stoking panic was the worst thing one could do in such situations, and that it threatened the security of the state, its citizens and its children. He said the broadcaster's output was not even disinformation, and gave his verdict on the channel.

What TV Republika is doing is simply scoundrelry. It cannot be called anything else.

Questions and the walkout

Szłapka took questions only from outlets not linked to TV Republika. When those ran out he asked for more, the room fell silent, and he said, "If there are no more questions from journalists, we are ending." When a Republika representative tried to speak anyway, he said they would not ask a question that day and that they could apologize and leave.

What you have done over the past few days is unacceptable.

He then thanked those present and left the room in silence, after the Republika reporter had already tried to put a question about what counted as disinformation.

Republika's response

The Republika reporter pressed on what the spokesman considered disinformation, but got no answer. The reporter stressed that warnings about threats had circulated in online student groups. A Republika editor later recalled that the spokesman had first called Republika "to the blackboard" and then could not face its questions. The channel also recalled footage of Szłapka at a women's strike demonstration asking the crowd why they had come, which drew a vulgar chant against PiS.

Opposition reaction

PiS MP Piotr Uściński said Republika had done far more than the government to inform the public about the situation, and argued that the government's current actions were meant to cover up important issues.

Republika did a lot more to inform about the situation than the government of Donald Tusk.

He said the prime minister should explain several matters and address the safety of children.