It is being alleged that between 2005 and 2007, state investigative agencies monitored telephone calls of ten well-known Polish journalists who were investigating stories involving ministers in the then Law and Justice-led government.

According to the Gazeta Wyborcza daily, among those kept under surveillance were employees of major Polish newspapers, weeklies and radio stations, such as Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Wyborcza, Polityka, Newsweek, Radio ZET and RMF FM.

Agents of the Internal Security Agency and Central Anti-Corruption Bureau checked journalists’ telephone activity to gather information on their informants and interviewees, particularly, it has been alleged of opponents of the Law and Justice government (2005-07).

It is being alleged that the agencies were acting in a political and not legal manner.

Journalists Bertold Kittel and Maciej Duda were invigilated, for example, while they were covering a story about a row between the Law and Justice ministers Zbigniew Wassermann and Zbigniew Ziobro. Another journalist, Bogdan Wroblewski was monitored while he was writing about the controversial detention of a Polish cardiologist by the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau.

In 2008, the Prosecutor’s Office in Zielona Gora opened an investigation which aimed at establishing whether the Internal Security Agency and Central Anti-Corruption Bureau overstepped their powers. The Prosecutor’s Office was tipped off about the state agencies’ practices by Janusz Kaczmarek, former Interior Minister, and by Poland’s police chief.

Prosecutors say that the mobile telephone network Era GSM provided data demanded by the agencies. The mobile operator said, however, that state agencies do not have to inform phone network operators if they want to check somebody’s telephone billing or tap a phone under the pretext of state protection.

Investigations into the case continue.  (mg/pg)