The head of Polish Television Robert Kwiatkowski has told the parliamentary commission investigating the so-called Rywingate scandal that it was not his idea to send film producer Lew Rywin to Gazeta Wyborcza to solicit a bribe.

Gazeta Wyborcza Editor in Chief Adam Michnik suggested that Kwiatkowski might have been interested in compromising the daily through a bribery scandal in order to eliminate it as a potential buyer in the possible privatisation of Polish Television's second channel.

"I never intended to privatise the [Polish Television] second channel, or indeed the first channel either, and I never undertook activities in that direction," Kwiatkowski told the commission.

Meanwhile, Rzeczpospolita has published Kwiatkowski's phone bills, which show that he telephoned Rywin 13 times over a two-week period in July, when Rywin allegedly made his offer to Agora, the publisher of Gazeta Wyborcza.

(NewsBase 21.ii.03)