Games and the Republic play marked cards. Borowski is just bait

In January this year, the court sentenced Adam Borowski for the message made on tv by the Republic in the context of Polnord's affair. Borowski stated that Roman Gierty as an lawyer “co-operates with criminals” and that “he gave his friends, he agreed that his friends should be these poles.” According to the court, these were defamatory words, contained in Article 212 k.k.

The court obliged Borowski to apologize to Gierty. The proceedings were conditionally dismissed, but Borowski failed to comply. There's no way he could apologize to him. I'd alternatively go to jail," he said on tv Tomasz Sakiewicz.

Read: “Independent charges.pl against the court in Piotrków. The president shall reply."

The court subsequently ordered six months’ imprisonment for 1 year and again ordered an apology. This is the minute that became the point of inflammation. Not due to the fact that the case afraid Borowski himself, but due to the fact that it became an excuse to launch a immense media and political machine.

It was adequate that tv Republika provided information in a speech suggesting that Borowski ‘goes to prison’ to affect further environments. Within a fewer days, the subject was captured by the media and politicians, and then by organizations that began formulating their positions in defence of the convicted activist.

At this point, the Borowski case ceased to have a legal dimension and became the start of a "right" mobilization. Communications were issued, positions were published, and words became meaningful, the first context of which was blurred.

An example is the position of the Bureau of the Management Board of the Śląsko-Dąbrowski Region "Solidarity", which assessed the decision of the court as "a terrible shame" and compared it to the actions of peer propaganda. The message states, among others:

If individual told us in the 1980s that in free Poland a legendary activist of ‘Solidarity’ would be sentenced to a ruthless prison for the usage of free speech, we would immediately know who we are dealing with. [...] However, what seemed to be an absolutely unbelievable prophecy at the time became a fact today.

The same position suggests that courts should show “understanding their function in our free state” and explicitly expects the president to “not let Adam Borowski to go to jail in free Poland”.

This was accompanied by statements from another groups, specified as the activists of the Democratic Opposition, who stressed that they could "not keep quiet" in the Borowski case and demanded that the Minister of Justice look into the case. In a message signed by 25 people, we read:

Although many of us do not share Adam Borowski's political views [...] we cannot stay silent about this. [...] Article 212 of the Penal Code, which allows anyone to be sentenced to imprisonment for public expression of their opinion on public persons, raises considerable doubts for years. In our opinion, this article should be removed from KK.

In this way, “balloon”, in front of the public, was inflated with pseudo-martyrology of solidarity, tearful patriotism and instrumental exploitation of the law.

The entry R. Giertych from FB. Click to enlarge

At the same time, the “machine” worked in full steam. The viewers of the Republic, fed over the years with poisoned messages, mentally prepared to defend Borowski, instigated by Sakiewicz's environment. At least 10,000 signatures were collected under a petition addressed to president Karol Nawrocki for pardon. The most crucial media in Poland repeated like a mantra: "The legendary anti-communist opposition activist was sentenced to six months of ruthless prison for criticizing Roman Gierty". Meanwhile, the real state of affairs was completely different.

On January 21, Gierty in Facebook explicitly admitted that the conviction was not suspended, that the procedure was ongoing, and that the order for the execution of the punishment was not issued. He besides wrote that he waited specially for “everybody to talk out”, due to the fact that at this point the “writing boost” became a part of the game for him.

His entry besides described the course of the case:

For defaming me he was initially found guilty and was ordered to apologize (which he had previously accepted). The case was conditionally dropped, and I didn't complain about it, and I thought I was sorry enough. erstwhile he disregarded that ruling and did not apologize to me, the upset court handed him a six-month suspended conviction for 1 year and ordered him to apologize again.

After this information, the “balloon” was pierced highly violently.

The biggest beneficiary of this fuss was tv Republic and the environment that needed a subject to fight. Borowski became just an excuse, a puppet. In fact, his destiny was not the most important. It was about creating a conflict, getting people into emotion and forcing politicians to take a stand. Then it was possible to repeat that “Giertych is simply a criminal”, “courts repress”, “freedom of word is at stake”, and all of this is “the responsibility of Tusk”.

Almost all Polish media that informed about the case were hit with a ricochet without checking at the origin of the revelation of the Republic. They reproduced the station's transmission without reflection, which did not itself guarantee verification of the facts. due to the fact that to do that, you gotta have honest professionals, not untrained pretenders.

Sitting on the another side of the Gierty conflict, he waited for a reaction due to the fact that he knew that each consequence would let him to drag his opponent into his trap. He was full aware that it would be tv Republic. And he didn't miscalculate. This is not a “accidental error”. This is simply a classical method of this station: you choose a fragment that fits the narrative, skips the rest, and then builds a “big scandal”. In this case, the “great scandal” was built on the belief that Borowski was to be immediately sent to prison. Except, as Gierty himself wrote, it hasn't happened yet, and it's not known if it will happen.

Read: "Independent.pl urges the Polish authorities to study to EU Commissioners".

And this is another component of the same game: the Republic and its environment took on the function of defenders of freedom of speech and the ethos of "Solidarity", but they did it not to defend the truth. They were doing this to unleash the storm and through Giertych, hit the civilian Coalition and Donald Tusk's government.

Gierty noticed this and in his entry he did not hide the satisfaction that the “written machine” stuck to the lep, which he himself suspended. He wrote straight that he waited for Błaszczak and Morawiecki to speak, and then revealed that the conviction had not yet been suspended. And that is the essence of this case.

Such a strategy is frightening due to the fact that it acts like a device to throw manure on the faces of society. It draws people into conflict, fuels hatred, triggers reactions, and then erstwhile it turns out that "facts are not as we thought", it is besides late.

At 1 card table they sat down: a cynical player and creator of the largest reptile in the country. They both played marked cards. Who cares about Borowski?

→ M. Barrel

25.01.2026

• graphics: barma Tribunal newspaper