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Former Polish Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, no stranger to run-ins with reporters, deflected a question from a 10-year-old parliamentary correspondent by telling her she was too young to exercise freedom of speech.
Sara Małecka-Trzaskoś, a blogger who has press accreditation in the Polish parliament, tried to ask Kaczyński, leader of Poland’s conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, about the abortion legislation that the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk is trying to get enacted.
Kaczyński was trying to explain to journalists why PiS-aligned Polish President Andrzej Duda is refusing to sign any bill that would ease the strict abortion rules put in place by the PiS government before it was defeated by a coalition led by Tusk’s Civic Coalition party in the last Polish election.
PiS also put severe curbs on media freedom while it was in power, including by putting public broadcasters under tight political control.
Upon seeing Małecka-Trzaskoś in a group of journalists, Kaczyński said: “You know, this is not a matter for children, so, my dear … go away.”
“I have freedom of speech,” Małecka-Trzaskoś replied.
“But freedom of speech is not for children,” Kaczyński said. “Seriously, go away.”
Małecka-Trzaskoś, who started her TikTok channel in February, was doing what a parliamentary correspondent is supposed to do: interview politicians. She even had an interview with Tusk, and her videos reach 20,000 to 30,000 people.
“I felt a little offended. I would ask him why he thinks that, why freedom of speech is not for children,” Małecka-Trzaskoś told Polish news portal Onet. “For me, freedom of speech is the most important thing.”
The PiS party, which led the country for eight years until losing power in elections last October, had tightened Poland’s abortion rules to a near-total ban in 2020. Poland’s new government, led by Tusk, has been trying to steer the country’s laws in a more liberal direction.
