Train of Events
On 22 July 2002, Lew Rywin called in at the office of Adam Michnik, editor of Poland's largest daily newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza. In exchange for a bribe of 17.5 million USD, Rywin offered to arrange for a change in a draft law aimed at limiting the print media's influence on radio and television, which would have been in Michnik's favour - as the original draft would have prevented the paper's publishing house, Agora S.A. from taking over the private TV station Polsat or the second channel of Poland's public TV broadcaster TVP. Rywin said he was acting on behalf of what he called a "group in power" which wanted to remain anonymous but possibly included then prime minister Leszek Miller of the post-communist SLD.
Michnik secretly recorded the conversation and started investigations to establish the identity of the "group in power". He also arranged a meeting between Miller, Rywin, and himself in Miller's office. When Miller denied any involvement in the deal Rywin had put forward, according to the other persons present, Rywin lost his composure and even spoke of committing suicide. Rywin himself later claimed to have been under the influence of alcohol.
Only after the Gazeta Wyborcza's alleged investigations had remained inconclusive, on 27 December 2002 - half a year after the incident, which cast some doubts on the real role of the newspaper in the affair - the paper printed the partial record of Michnik's conversation with Rywin, thus starting the actual scandal. However other papers had reported parts of the story earlier (e.g. weekly magazine Wprost )
In January 2003, the Polish parliament (Sejm) created a special committee to conduct an investigation into the circumstances of the affair.
A separate penal prosecution resulted in Rywin being sentenced to two years in prison and a 100,000 PLN fine for 26 April 2004 fraud, as the court concluded that the "group in power" did not exist and Rywin had been acting on his own initiative. On 10 December 2004, the Warsaw court of appeals repealed this sentence, sentencing Rywin to a reduced term of two years for "paid protection" on behalf of a still anonymous group.
Read more about this topic: Rywin Affair
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