„Never before, have ministers of the Polish government, under dictation from nationalist and anti-Ukrainian circles, considered our delegalization – this is how the Open Dialogue Foundation responded to the reports that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has requested its detailed fiscal inspection” – we read on the website of TVN24 which has published a material in connection with an attack of pro-government media on the ODF and the particular interest in the Foundation on the part of the MFA.
And that interest, with the resulting inspections, occurred immediately after the Chair of the Foundation’s Council Bartosz Kramek had published on Facebook a post at the time when protests were going on against the laws forced by the Peace and Justice (PiS) party changing the judicial system. The appeal was entitled “Let the state stop: let us deactivate the government!” and contained a list of 16 proposed actions to prevent “PiS’s attack against the rule of law in Poland”.
“Last Friday, the press office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs communicated that the Ministry had requested the Fiscal Administration Chamber in Warsaw to conduct a comprehensive fiscal inspection at the Open Dialogue Foundation and inform the MFA’s head of its results “due to the information posted by the Open Dialogue Foundation calling for illegal actions, such as encouraging people not to perform the obligation to pay taxes, and also in connection with media reports about major financial flows between the persons on the Foundation’s authorities” – TVN24reports.
The Ministry’s actions were preceded by reports from pro-government media, inter alia TVP and “wSieci” weekly, of alleged receipt of “Russian money” and Russian armament firms as the Foundation’s “sensational sponsors”. It had been suggested earlier on that the ODF is supported by George Soros. – This is false and we firmly deny it – Bartosz Kramek stated and emphasized that the Open Dialogue Foundation files annual financial statements with the Tax Office and the National Court Register and reports on its activities with the MFA, and also places them all in electronic format on its website. To date, they have not raised any particular interest of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During the 7 years of its existence, the Foundation has recurrently undergone inspections by various services which have not demonstrated major flaws. ”Yes, we have already got used to tapped telephones, but never before have ministers of the Polish government, in public, under dictation from nationalist and anti-Ukrainian circles, sent fiscal inspections to us and considered our delegalization. Because of that, we see this as the beginning of an attack against civil society” – TVN24cites the Foundation’s statement.
Source: tvn24.pl
Read also:
- Bartosz Kramek for Radio Zet: “Concession is something we have never concealed”
- Krytyka Polityczna: Open Dialogue Foundation targeted by pro-government media
- Wirtualna Polska about the media and government’s smear campaign against ODF. Kramek: “This is a politically motivated beginning of repressions”
- ‘We are here to defend democracy’ – Lyudmyla Kozlovska and Bartosz Kramek in an interview for Gazeta Wyborcza
- Onet: The Government does not want an Open Dialog
- “We see the Ministry’s call as censorship” – Bartosz Kramek comments on the Ministry’s letter
- Polsat News covers the speech of Bartosz Kramek at OSCE/ODIHR HDIM 2017 side event
See also:
- Open Dialogue Foundation’s statement of 21 July 2017 on the dismantling of the rule of law in Poland
- Open Dialogue Foundation’s statement of 23 July 2017
- The statement of the decision of the President of the Republic of Poland of 24 July 2017 regarding the judiciary reform
- The Open Dialogue Foundation’s statement of 31 July 2017 (funding and donors, or a few words about ‘soroses’)
