When I opened it on Sept. 23, all I got was a message: “503 Service Unavailable.”
asserted
I → open → Sept.
I knew the feeling.
asserted
I → know → feeling
On Dec. 20, 2023, my access pass for Poland’s public broadcaster, TVP, stopped working.
asserted
pass → stop → broadcaster
I waited almost three years before writing about it.
asserted
I → wait → it
On that day in 1981, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski imposed martial law to crush the Solidarity movement.
asserted
Jaruzelski → impose → movement
Telephones went silent, and a general in uniform appeared on television.
asserted
general → go → television
On Dec. 13, 2023, Donald Tusk’s government was sworn in.
asserted
government → swear → Dec.
This time, the phones stayed on.
asserted
phones → stay → ?
On Dec. 19, Culture Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz dismissed the management of public media, even though five days earlier, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal had issued an injunction ordering the state to refrain from changing its boards.
asserted
Tribunal → dismiss → boards
The ministry declared the injunction legally ineffective.
asserted
injunction → declare → ?
I saw police outside the building.
asserted
I → see → building
At 11:18 a.m., TVP Info went off the air, and its website, tvp.info, went dark.
asserted
website → go → air
That evening, presenter Marek Czyz promised viewers, “Instead of propaganda soup, we would like to offer you clean water.”
asserted
we → promise → water
I have not been invited back to a TVP studio since.
asserted
I → invite → studio
That I can live with.
asserted
I → live → That
Losing access to the studio was not the real problem.
asserted
Losing → lose → studio
It is harder to remain a journalist in your mid-40s when your body of work suddenly disappears.
asserted
body → remain → work
The website came back on Jan. 15, 2024.
asserted
website → come → Jan.
Andrzej Jaszczyszyn, who was overseeing it, said archival material had been reviewed for what he called journalistic reliability, and that content “bordering on propaganda” would not be made public.
asserted
content → oversee → propaganda
In practice, the new management was deciding which works of its predecessors would remain in the public archive.
asserted
works → decide → archive
Much of the archive did not come back.
asserted
Much → come → archive
Material by journalists, commentators, and academics was missing.
asserted
Material → miss → journalists
A week after the relaunch, the media-industry publication Wirtualnemedia reported that historical and cultural pieces, including articles by academics, had vanished as well.
asserted
pieces → report → academics
Jaszczyszyn declined to comment and referred questions to TVP’s press office.
asserted
Jaszczyszyn → decline → office
About 400 of the missing articles, analyses, and interviews were mine.
asserted
400 → miss → articles
Among them were the weekly political column I had written every Saturday evening since 2018 and a report I filed from Armenia during the war with Azerbaijan.
asserted
I → write → Azerbaijan
Polish governments have changed public media management before.
asserted
governments → change → management
That was not what bothered me.
asserted
what → bother → me
What bothered me was that years of published work could be taken out of public view by the people who inherited it.
uncertain
who → bother → it
I do not know whether my articles were deleted or taken offline, but still stored somewhere.
asserted
articles → know → ?
For readers, it makes no difference.
asserted
it → make → difference
I have copies of all of them.
asserted
I → have → them
But I sold TVP the rights to the articles, and no contract anticipated the broadcaster retaining those rights while taking the work out of public view.
asserted
broadcaster → sell → view
I could republish them myself and see whether TVP sues me.
uncertain
TVP → republish → me
I suspect they would enjoy that more than I would.
asserted
I → suspect → that
Americans know cancel culture from social media: a suspended account, a deleted post.
asserted
Americans → know → media
In America, you can lose your account.
asserted
you → lose → account
In Poland, you can lose your past.
asserted
you → lose → past
I did not want to make myself the story, so I kept quiet.
asserted
I → want → ?
I thought it was a Polish story.
asserted
it → think → ?
…and 24 more, not listed.
The Aporia
