Billboards with “Lichocka’s gesture”. MP wants apology

3 September 2020 | Author: sp

“Joanna Lichocka is said to have received “dozens of death threats and demands that she resign her parliamentary seat”. This is all the result of the billboards with “Lichocka’s gesture” believes the law firm representing the MP and demanding an apology for this,” reads wyborcza.pl.

Lawyers representing Lichocka have contacted the organisers of the billboard campaign demanding they apologise to the MP, who believes that her personal rights have been violated. In her opinion, it is wrong “to disseminate untruthful content suggesting that it is her [Lichocka’s -ed.] will to deprive cancer patients of funding for their treatment”.

The authors of the fundraiser are also to express apologies “for ascribing bad intentions to Joanna Lichocka and portraying her image in a mocking manner as the ‘face’ of the media dispute over public media funding”.

“Joanna Lichocka’s image has been used to drive a public dispute by means of ‘tricks’ involving the juxtaposition of unfavourable photographs with untrue, populist slogans and their subsequent placement on billboards that have appeared across Poland – and which were funded by none other than the misled citizens,” reads the demand.

The law firm also points out that the Law and Justice MP allegedly received “dozens of death threats and demands that she resign her parliamentary seat”. As a result, Lichocka is now demanding the removal of the collections, payment of 40,000 PLN to the Rak’n’Roll – Win Life Foundation and an apology.

Billboards with “Lichocka’s gesture”

The case stemmed from a dispute over a law allocating nearly PLN 2 billion to public media. The opposition wanted to allocate these funds for the treatment of oncological diseases.

Following the rejection of the Senate’s veto, MP Joanna Lichocka made a gesture towards her political competitors by raising her middle finger. She later explained that she was merely moving her finger under her eye.

Lichocka’s vulgar gesture took over the Internet for quite some time, many memes were created, and the media took a keen interest in the case. Marcin Mycielski of the Open Dialogue Foundation decided to use the notorious photo and put it on billboards. A fundraising campaign for this purpose was launched on the Internet.

“The campaign was spontaneous. Together with Bartosz Kramek, we decided to take advantage of MP Lichocka’s gesture and show the public what the government plans to do with their taxes. We decided to put up the billboards, particularly near the eastern border, regions known as the bastion of PiS,” Mycielski explained in an interview with Wyborcza.

Foundation in conflict with the Law and Justice party

The Open Dialogue Foundation found itself targeted by the secret services during the rule of the PiS government. ODF’s president Lyudmyla Kozlovska was expelled from the territory of the European Union on 14 August 2018, after Poland entered her data into the Schengen Information System (SIS). The entry was made by the head of the Office for Foreigners based on a secret negative opinion issued by the Internal Security Agency. The basis for Kozlovska’s expulsion was a provision stating that it was required for reasons of defence or state security, or the protection of public security and order.

“This is Mariusz Kaminski’s [coordinator of secret services] personal revenge on my husband Bartosz Kramek. The Internal Security Agency’s report is secret because it has nothing to show,” Kozlovska told Onet at the time.

In 2017, Bartosz Kramek published a manual on social media called “Let’s shut down the government”, in which he described how to organise a protest against those in power.

Source: onet.pl

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