"The American dream has become a nightmare"Did the Americans at Discovery know about the humiliation of workers at TVN? Former cameraman: the American dream has become a nightmare

„Bullying, blackmail, humiliation, isolation, professional exclusion and modern-day slavery” - this in a nutshell was the situation of TVN employees, reported today by Kamil Różalski.

The former cameraman of TVN, who participated in the conference organized by the Press Freedom Monitoring Centre of the Polish Journalists Association, revealed more details of the shocking practices that allegedly took place in TVN.

Uncovering the pathology in TVN is my conscious choice, because since February this year I have become the face of this dispute. I represent a group of people who decided to fight for their dignity. I was aware of the consequences. I have become a target of their revenge

— said Kamil Różalski.

Former employee: Threats were commonplace

I was associated with TVN from the very beginning of the station foundation. In 2012 the realization department was liquidated, i.e. the remaining posts for operators and producers were taken away. These people were forced to give up their jobs „by mutual agreement”. I was the last employee to give up my post. I attended a meeting with the director of the production department, who informed me that if I did not terminate my contract, I would not find a job elsewhere. Those were not idle threats. Threats, deprivation of jobs and job opportunities are the rule. Such situations occur, and they affect people who resist the pathology

— reported the former operator.

Różalski said that the American owners of the station „sold” the rebellious employees and revealed their data to the Polish authorities of the corporation.

In 2019, when TVN was already owned by Discovery, there was a whistleblowing procedure. We naively thought that the Americans might not know about these pathologies. That is why we filed a notice against them. We asked for anonymity and to be contacted only by the American side. However, the Americans passed our data to Poland

— he said.

A commission was set up which did not want to provide us with its procedures. A farce began, where the „impartial” commission included the main staff member from TVN and a lawyer from a firm that usually represents TVN in disputes with employees. It was intended to scare us. We asked if there would be a record of our testimony. They replied that there would not. These are the new TVN standards. So we asked if we could record our meeting. They did not agree to this either and said that they themselves would record our meeting and then preserve the recording. So we refused to testify. And so the committee proceeded without us and then concluded that our allegations were baseless

— he reported.

Lack of response

Różalski also pointed out to important institutions that they have not dealt very effectively with a number of illegal activities at TVN.

Several people formed a group that decided to fight for workers’ rights. We filed a complaint with the Social Security Administration (ZUS) in October 2019. We filed a complaint to the State Labour Inspectorate. There was silence for 1.5 years. So the victim feels even more victimized. Having acted for 3 years, we know that such an inspection can be carried out in a few weeks. The case concerns up to 1.8 thousand people. Does it mean that ZUS does not want to recover the money? (…). It was only in the spring of this year that ZUS asked us to submit explanations. The inspection has been prolonged until September. Now we will see the outcome

— he said.

We have also sent a report to the Ombudsman, as well as to the White House administration and some US senators. We are facing bullying, blackmail, humiliation, isolation, professional exclusion and modern-day slavery. The American owners knew perfectly well, from the spring of 2019, what kind of pathologies were taking place at TVN. They probably knew about it much earlier. They were deliberately failing us. The American dream has become the American nightmare. This has to end somehow

— explained Różalski.

The conference, organised by CMWP SDP (Polish Journalists Association), was attended by journalists from nationwide editorial offices, as well as local media. Sebastian Kaleta, deputy minister of justice, also joined the organisers. The Polish Journalists Association Press Freedom Monitoring Centre has been fighting for freedom of speech for 25 years and effectively supports journalists in their struggle for justice and society’s right to information. The credit for this goes to Jolanta Hajdasz, the current director of the Centre.

Tłum. K.J.