Poland’s state media have come under fire following the suicide of the 15-year-old son of an opposition MP.

A minor was abused by a pedophile and committed suicide after the publication allowed his identity to be revealed.

The teenager committed suicide less than two months after Radio Szczecin, a state-owned channel controlled by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, published a report on a “pedagogical scandal” within the opposition Civic Platform (PO).

The young man was buried on Tuesday.

Radio Szczecin said in December that the opposition party was trying to cover up the politically motivated scandal because the perpetrator was an NGO activist. In 2021, the perpetrator was sentenced to four years and ten months in prison, and the details of the case were not released to protect the identities of the victims.

But in the message of the editor-in-chief of “Radio Szczecin” Tomasz Duklanovsky, “the children of a famous deputy” are named as victims. Magdalena Filiks is an MP from the GO, and the opposition claims the article was meant to harm her.

The story was picked up by other government-affiliated media outlets, including state broadcaster TVP.

Minister of Education Przemysław Czarnek also intervened. “The same people who talk so loudly about the fight against pedophilia are hiding pedophiles in their ranks,” he told the PiS-controlled radio and television network.

Some Twitter accounts close to PiS claimed that Felix tried to hush up the scandal in order to protect her own political career.

family tragedy

Felix spoke publicly on Friday, about three weeks after her son’s death. “My daughters and I ask the media to respect the privacy of the family and not attend the funeral.

On Tuesday, the Polish parliament honored the memory of the teenager with a minute of silence.

Immediately after Felix’s announcement, some began deleting their previous tweets about the case.

Duklanowski avoided the spotlight. According to Wirtualne Media, the Polish media news service, the editor-in-chief went on vacation and returned only on Tuesday.

Wojciech Wlodarski, General Director of Radio Szczecin, said: “Let state institutions act first.” The case is under consideration by the prosecutor’s office.

Duklanowski has been criticized by anti-government media. The opposition noted that the case is an example of how the PiS turned radio, television and several newspapers now owned by the state-controlled PKN-Orlen into pro-government propaganda outlets.

Since PiS came to power in 2015, Poland has been steadily falling in the media freedom rankings.

“While the private media market has remained quite pluralistic, with influential independent media such as TVN, the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza or the online publication Onet.pl, state-owned media, especially TVP, have turned into state propaganda tools,” reported Reporters Without Borders. “. of the year in the Press Freedom Index report.

Poland has dropped to 66th in the annual NGO press freedom rankings in 2022 from 18th in 2015.

Opposition parties have criticized the ruling party’s control of the media following the death of Felix’s son.

“We will ask the PiS to answer for all the evil, for all the human harm and tragedy it has caused while in power,” Donald Tusk, PO leader and former Polish prime minister, tweeted on Saturday.

The opposition plans to carry out deep reforms of the state media if it manages to take power in 2023. For its part, the PiS strongly defends its control of the media.

Source: Politico