Did state media drive a teen to suicide in Poland?
March 10, 2023
On March 3, Magdalena Filiks posted an obituary on social media, stating that "on February 17, my son Mikolaj Filiks passed away; he would have turned 16 on March 8." Filiks is a delegate with the liberal-conservative opposition Civic Platform (PO) in Poland's parliament, the Sejm.
The post sent shockwaves throughout Poland. Astute observers of Poland's political scene instantly knew that Polish state media could be complicit in the teen's death.
His case had widely been considered closed: In September 2020, a civil servant in the West Pomeranian province was arrested in the city of Szczecin.
Authorities accused the civil servant of having sexually abused a 13-year-old boy. The man was also accused of having plied a 16-year-old teenage girl with drugs. In December 2021, the man was sentenced to four years and ten months in jail. The trial was conducted behind closed doors to protect privacy of the underage victims. At the time, all sides respected this confidentiality agreement.
His mother is an outspoken opposition figure
Magdalena Filiks helped co-found the civic organization the Committee for the Defence of Democracy, after the Law and Justice (PiS) party, headed by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, took power in 2015.
The 45-year-old economist has sided with prosecuted judges, joined protests against restricted access to abortions and led eye-catching billboard campaigns. She has been a PO delegate since 2019.
State media was politically motivated to revisit old case
Polish media appears to be in a frenzy in the run-up to this autumn's parliamentary elections. In December 2022, government-controlled Radio Szczecin began covering the abuse case again in order to damage the liberal PO, which leads in the West Pomeranian province.
Radio Szczecin head Tomasz Duklanowski covered the case as if it were breaking news, although a court had sentenced the perpetrator in 2022. The pro-government journalist described it as a "child abuse scandal in the office of a marshal" — a position roughly equivalent to state president — and said there had been attempts to hush up the case. The journalist was alluding to the fact the convicted abuser and the marshal are both members of Magdalena Filik's PO party.
Other government-friendly media outlets joined the smear campaign. The news outlet TVP Info, weekly Gazeta Polska, and regional newspaper Glos Szczecinski, owned by Polish oil company PKN Orlen, piled on. Right-wing politicians and publishers backed the campaign, and Filiks and her family were subjected to online abuse.
Ever since its 2015 electoral victory, Poland's PiS party has viewed establishing total control over erstwhile public media outlets as a key task. It also views gaining control of the judiciary as essential.
Sensitive information published
Media reports did not spare details that could be used to identify the adolescent victim. Radio Szczecin chief correspondent Duklanowski wrote there was talk that the "children of a well-known parliamentarian" were victims of the abuse case. Rzeczpospolita newspaper reported that pictures of Magdalena Filiks had been shared online. Exposed and humiliated, Magdalena Filiks' son took his own life.
The reports triggered fierce criticism, with Poland's National Broadcasting Council saying ethical principles had been violated. The head of the state commission against child abuse, Blazej Kmiecik, criticized Duklanowski for his actions, saying that if a media report made it possible to "find out the personal details of abused children within [a mere] 15 seconds," the journalist's work was "wrong, unethical, and disgraceful."
"They wanted to defame me, and make a mother suffer. Instead, they caused the death of a child," Olgierd Geblowicz, marshal of the West Pomeranian province, told Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper. He said the PO politician had been the actual target of the right-wing media campaign.
The boy's suicide sparked a wave of outrage and solidarity with his mother. "We will hold the PiS accountable for every misdeed, every injustice and every tragedy. I promise that," opposition leader Donald Tusk wrote on Twitter. On the day of the teenager's funeral, Tusk added Mikolaj had been hounded to death by the media.
Public outcry
"When will the head of Radio Szczecin be recalled?" Catholic journalist Tomasz Terlikowski recently asked. "I'm not asking if he will stay, because the answer to that is clear from a moral standpoint. I'm asking how long they will wait [before removing him]."
Writing in Gazeta Wyborcza, Bartosz Wielinski similarly warned that "words can kill." Adding that people who act this way, in his view, "are not journalists, but members of the propaganda apparatus."
Poland's independent journalists' association Towarzystwo Dziennikarskie also criticized Duklanowski, saying that "above all, journalists should show concern for the people they write about. Anyone who does not respect this principle should be expelled from the profession."
Despite numerous calls for Duklanowski's resignation, Radio Szczecin has so far not commented on the case or taken action against the journalist. As is customary after suicides, the prosecutor's office has now launched proceedings following Mikolaj Filiks' death.
Mikolaj was buried on March 7, one day before his 16th birthday. His mother asked media to refrain from covering the funeral. When doing so online, she placed the word "media" in quotation marks.
This article was translated from German.
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