“We made propaganda worse than under communism,” admits Polish state TV star after election failure

A prominent figure from Polish state broadcaster TVP has admitted that, under the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, the station has been creating “worse propaganda than [under communism] in the 1970s”. He believes this contributed to PiS losing its parliamentary majority at Sunday’s elections.

The comments were made by Marcin Wolski, who under PiS served as director of TVP2, the station’s second main channel, then as director of TVP’s entertainment branch, and most recently as an advisor to its management board.

He is best known publicly, however, as a presenter of W tyle wizji, a satirical current affairs show on TVP Info, the broadcaster’s 24-hour news channel. The programme has, like other news coverage on TVP, been used to promote PiS’s agenda and attack the opposition.

Marcin Wolski o @tvp_info przed wyborami: propaganda gorsza niż w PRL, zwyciężyła logika stalinowskahttps://t.co/yPZ2mnlSox

— Wirtualnemedia.pl (@wirtualnemedia) October 18, 2023

“I say this as an accomplice: we created propaganda at a worse level than in the 1970s,” said Wolski at a post-election event organised on Monday by Klub Ronina (the Ronin Club), a leading right-wing discussion forum that meets weekly in Warsaw.

“This nation has simply been humiliated, the propaganda that has been pouring out over the last few months,” he added. Wolski stated that he had been suspended from appearing on TVP six months ago because he “didn’t fit that hard attack line”.

Wolski also argued that such “propaganda aimed at the core electorate” of the ruling party was “a waste of time and money” because those people would vote for PiS anyway. But at TVP, “the Stalinist logic won: whoever is not with us is against us”.

“Do you agree with the opinion that Poland can expect political chaos if the election is won by an opposition comprising several different parties?”

This is Poland’s state broadcaster. Not some niche troll account running a social media poll. The state broadcaster. pic.twitter.com/ZApc8L49wh

— Ben Stanley (@BDStanley) October 13, 2023

As an example, he pointed to the publication by TVP last week, just before the elections, of a secretly recorded conversation that the station said showed the head of the state audit office plotting to help the opposition by ensuring that the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) party would not enter a coalition with PiS.

“Do you know how much energy we lost last week blaming Confederation?” asked Wolski. “And yet, if Confederation’s result had been a bit better, there would not have been such a devasting result [for us] for [Civic] Platform.”

Confederation performed worse than expected, winning only 7% of the vote and 18 seats in parliament, not enough to make it a potential ruling partner for PiS. Meanwhile, the mainstream opposition, led by Civic Platform (PO), performed strongly and now looks set to form the new government.

International @OSCE observers have reported that Poland’s elections were an „uneven playing field” because the ruling party “enjoyed a clear advantage through its undue influence over the use of state resources and the public media” https://t.co/pZBE7UXvAR

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) October 17, 2023

In their preliminary report on Sunday’s elections, international observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) noted that during the campaign TVP “deliberately distort[ed] events through the promotion of the ruling party… while heavily attacking its main political rival”.

The OSCE found that 80% of TVP’s coverage of the main opposition group was negative in tone while coverage of PiS and the government “was almost entirely positive and often framed to amplify the party’s campaign messages”.

OSCE observers issued similar findings regarding the bias of TVP in their reports on the 2019 parliamentary elections and 2020 presidential election.

State TV news warned tonight that the opposition candidate may seek to „fulfil Jewish demands” if he wins the presidency.

The channel continues to be used to support President Duda’s re-election bid and to smear his opponent as serving a „foreign lobby” https://t.co/2bWtei8voF

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) July 9, 2020

While every government in Poland since 1989 has exerted a degree of influence over public media, that has happened to an unprecedented extent under PiS, with TVP in particular becoming a mouthpiece for the party.

Long-running polling by state research agency CBOS shows that, under PiS, negative views of TVP among the public have reached their highest ever level. An annual study by researchers at the University of Oxford shows that the station is now the least trusted source of news among Poland’s main media outlets.

Last year, the opposition submitted a bill to abolish TVP Info, which they said was a “propaganda” outlet. The legislation got no further, with PiS having a majority in parliament. However, should a new government now be formed by the opposition, it is expected to extensively overhaul public media.

State broadcaster TVP remains Poland’s least trusted major news source, finds an annual study by @risj_oxford, which notes that the station provides „skewed, pro-government coverage”.

The most trusted outlets are RMF FM, Polsat, Radio Zet and TVN https://t.co/nhxEaj9lS0

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) June 15, 2023

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.