Verification, then publication
On Thursday on TV, the Republic of journalists Cezary Gmyz and Piotr Nisztor informed that they had obtained sound recordings that they thought could have serious consequences for the national political scene. As they say, the tapes include talks by prominent representatives of the presently ruling team.
Cezary Gmyz admitted that he initially suspected that materials could be provocation, especially since we live in a time erstwhile artificial intelligence technology makes it easy to fake recordings. However, according to the editors of the Republic, the analysis confirmed the authenticity of the materials – they were not framed by the AI.
As Gmyz stated:
These are both older things from 2019 and we have newer material from a fewer months ago. This material is very interesting.
How were the materials obtained?
Cezary Gmyz admitted that he had heard about the existence of recordings about 2 years ago as they circulated as unconfirmed rumors in a journalistic environment. It was only after any time that he himself acquired the material.
We were approached by a man I initially treated as a provocateur, who offered materials that seemed sensational. The minute I listened to them, I thought it might actually be a kind of provocation.
As he noted, the recordings cover both older fragments from 2019 and newer, coming from a fewer months ago. After their analysis, he ruled out that they could have been fabricated utilizing artificial intelligence. In turn, Peter Nisztor emphasized that the material was very extended and caused him large surprise.
A repeat of the first incident?
During the erstwhile eavesdrop that broke out in 2014, stenograms from talks by leading politicians were first published by weekly magazine Wprost. In the following months, fresh parts of the recordings were besides revealed by editors of Things and TVP Info.
Eavesdroppings were made in Warsaw restaurants commissioned by a coal businessman, Marek Falenty. Among the recordings were Donald Tusk, Radosław Sikorski, Jan Kulczyk, Marek Belka, Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Ryszard Kalisz, Sławomir Nowak, Paweł Wojtunik, Elżbieta Bieńkowska, Jan Rostowski, Leszek Miller, Mateusz Morawiecki and Fr Ryszard Sowa.
On December 29, 2016, the Warsaw territory Court sentenced Mark Falenta to 2.5 years imprisonment for ordering illegal wiretaps of politicians, officials and entrepreneurs. 2 waiters, Konrad Lassota and Krzysztof Rybka, received penalties after 10 months of imprisonment in suspension for 3 years and fines. In the case of the 4th defendant, whose data were not disclosed, the court waived the penalty, imposing an work to pay PLN 50 1000 for social purposes. The disclosure of the content of the talks led to a series of resignations in Donald Tusk's second government.
