At the end of August 2007, in response to media reports of illegal surveillance of journalists, politicians and businessmen, a team was set up at the General Headquarters of the Polish Police, headed at the time by Tadeusz Budzik. The team’s task was to verify the correctness of requests for operating surveillance made by the Central Bureau of Investigation. In December 2007, an audit of the issue was undertaken by the new head of the Central Bureau of Investigation, Junior Inspector Paweł Wojtunik.
During the audit, special attention was given to the “CELE” investigation conducted by the Organized Economic Crime Unit, Head Office of the Central Bureau of Investigation in Warsaw. The investigation concerned alleged preparations for a media provocation aimed at Zbigniew Ziobro and Janusz Kaczmarek, and a potential assassination attempt on Zbigniew Ziobro’s life. Two journalists, Witold Gadowski and Przemysław Wojciechowski, allegedly indicated that a Russian mafia resident and a private detective from the Pomerania region were preparing for an assassination attempt on Minister Ziobro’s life. The audit was concluded with the submission of a crime notification to the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
In July 2009, the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Zielona Góra discontinued the proceedings. After the intervention of Edward Zalewski, the National Public Prosecutor at that time, the proceedings were resumed.
On 5 June 2010, an article by Bogdan Wróblewski entitled “Gazeta na podsłuchu" ("Gazeta under surveillance") was published in Gazeta Wyborcza. The author claimed that between 24 April and 10 May 2007, Wojciech Czuchnowski was wire-tapped as part of the “CELE” secret investigation.
At the turn of May and June 2010 the Regional Public Prosecutor’s Office in Zielona Góra remitted the proceedings once more. Wojciech Czuchnowski appealed against that decision.
The hearing of Czuchnowski’s appeal was conducted in camera. According to a report in Gazeta Wyborcza, the Court “found the violation of the secret surveillance provisions to be only a breach of official duties, and decided that the wire-tapping did not violate the journalist’s privacy.”
Gazeta Wyborcza reported as well that Judge Anna Kwiatkowska stated that the officers who wire-tapped the journalist’s phone had no knowledge of its owner’s identity, and that Agora, owner of Gazeta Wyborcza, employs people of various professions, not only journalists. The Judge held that the police officers had no intent to harm Wojciech Czuchnowski in any way, and that the wire-tapping did not violate his privacy or his professional interests because, while maintaining contact with various persons, he should allow for the possibility of assuming relations with a person who was being wire-tapped.
