Rywin affair

The Rywin affair (Polish: afera Rywina was a corruption scandal in Poland, which began in late 2002 while the post communist government of the SLD (Democratic Left Alliance) was in power. It is named after the prominent Polish film producer Lew Rywin, who was a key figure.

On 22 July 2002, Lew Rywin called in at the office of Adam Michnik, editor of Poland's largest daily newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza. In exchange for a bribe of 17.5 million USD, Rywin offered to arrange for a change in a draft law aimed at limiting the print media's influence on radio and television, which would have been in Michnik's favour - as the original draft would have prevented the paper's publishing house, Agora S.A. from taking over the private TV station Polsat or the second channel of Poland's public TV broadcaster TVP. Rywin said he was acting on behalf of what he called a "group in power" which wanted to remain anonymous but possibly included then prime minister Leszek Miller of the post-communist SLD.

Michnik secretly recorded the conversation and started investigations to establish the identity of the "group in power". He also arranged a meeting between Miller, Rywin, and himself in Miller's office. When Miller denied any involvement in the deal Rywin had put forward, according to the other persons present, Rywin lost his composure and even spoke of committing suicide. Rywin himself later claimed to have been under the influence of alcohol.

Only after the Gazeta Wyborcza's alleged investigations had remained inconclusive, on 27 December 2002 - half a year after the incident, which cast some doubts on the real role of the newspaper in the affair - the paper printed the partial record of Michnik's conversation with Rywin, thus starting the actual scandal. However other papers had reported parts of the story earlier (e.g. weekly magazine Wprost )

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