A journalist whose investigation led to revelations that a liberal public prosecutor used an international legal firm to challenge the actions of the outgoing conservative (PiS) government without authorization of her superiors, has accused the left-liberal Donald Tusk government of attempts to cancel him and the portal he works for.
Patryk Słowik, who works for the wp.pl portal, revealed last week that prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek allowed the international firm Clifford Chance to prepare a legal action, among others, sanctioning the unlawful takeover of public media by Tusk’s team. Now, Słowik is accusing Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk of attempts to intimidate him and the Wirtualna Polska (wp.pl) portal he works for, because the publication showed one of its supporters in an unfavorable light.
After his revelations about prosecutor Wrzosek’s actions, journalist Patryk Słowik has been subjected to a wave of hate from journalists with liberal leanings as well as politicians. Słowik has stated on the X platform that this is tantamount to an “escalation aimed at canceling wp.pl.”
He said “this is a curious way of protecting free speech and media,” adding that “it is obvious that the aim of the hate campaign is to ensure that journalists become too scared to write challenging material against the government.”
Słowik believes that politicians such as Donald Tusk and Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski are aiming to discourage the publication of critical texts. That is what campaigns such as the one to get Słowik sacked by wp.pl are about, he claims.
The investigative journalist, however, said he refuses to be silenced or change how he works, especially when he is not being accused of writing anything that isn’t true and has not been verified.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk took to X earlier to defend the prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek as a brave woman who deserves respect, “especially from those who earned quite a bit of money from their cooperation with the last (PiS) government. You know what I am talking about.”
Słowik reacted to Tusk’s tweet commenting wryly that he could not possibly think the prime minister was writing about him because he “couldn’t possibly be insinuating and suggesting that the media should not investigate people that the government supports.”
