A parliamentary commission for special services convened Thursday to discuss the recent phone-tapping scandal, in which functionaries of the government Internal Security Agency were accused of unlawfully wire-tapping journalists and using thus obtained transcripts for illegal purposes.

 

 

The phone tapping scandal came in the wake of numerous allegations of corruption within the government, which has led to the resignations of several ministers in the government led by Donald Tusk of Civic Platform party.

 

The scandal errupted a week ago, when two daily newspapers, "Rzeczpospolita" and "Polska the Times" wrote that two popular journalists, Bogdan Rymanowski of the commercial television station TVN, as well as Cezary Gmyz of "Rzeczpospolita" had their telephone conversations recorded by the Internal Security Agency (ABW). According to the law, investigating officers were supposed to damage the recordings. Instead, they declassified the stenographic records and handed them to Jacek Mąka, deputy head of the Internal Security Agency, who has been privately suing Rzeczpospolita and its journalist Cezary Gmyz. 

During the Thursday's session, the parliamentary special services commission interrogated, authorities of the Internal Security Agency, the head Krzysztof Bondaryk, and his deputy Jacek Mąka, as well as a representative of the prosecution. Will the commission ever get to the bottom of the case?