Who tapes harmed the most?

Who tapes harmed the most?

The tape scandal provoked an uproar in the media and completely changed the landscape of the presented events. Almost everything that was not associated with wiretaps disappeared from the headlines and has been replaced by the recorded persons.

The President of the National Bank of Poland, Marek Belka, bore the brunt, ‘PRESS-SERVICE Monitoring Media’ analysis shows.

The effect of freshness was crucial. It was his conversation with Bartomiej Sienkiewicz that was published first. On Monday, June 16, more space was devoted to it than the recording of Sławomir Nowak and Andrzej Parafianowicz. Moreover, Belka became the hero of slightly higher number of news than the interior minister.

Chart 1. Number of materials from press, the Internet, radio and television about eight selected persons involved in the tape scandal, by days from 11 to 23 June, 2014

Only on this day 2.4 thousand materials featuring the name Belka were recorded in the press, Internet, radio and television. Meanwhile, 2.2 thousand were those relating to Sienkiewicz. The topic of their conversation was, among others, former finance minister, Jan Rostowski, who that day had more publications than the day before when his conversation with Radosław Sikorski was disclosed.

Belka was the leader among negative heroes of the scandal until the entry of Internal Security Agency into the premises of ‘Wprost’ magazine. Then he was overtaken by Sienkiewicz who, as the coordinator of special services, was accused of overseeing the action in his own case.

The media widely commented on the events also during the long weekend, but the number of publications was spread more evenly. Until the disclosure of further records of wiretapped conversations, the interior minister dominated. On Saturday, the buzz regarding Paweł Graś and Jacek Krawiec, followed by Rostowski and foremost Sikorski increased exponentially. The latter was criticized mainly for his negative statement about the Polish-American alliance.

In total, during the period between 11 and 23 June 2014, ‘PRESS-SERVICE Monitoring Media’ analysts recorded 9 thousand publications related to Marek Belka and 8.6 thousand regarding Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz. Jan Rostowski (5.3 thousand) and Sławomir Nowak (4.3 thousand) attracted little less attention. Due to later publication of the recordings featuring Radosław Sikorski, he is found placed further with a score of 3.1 thousand, slightly ahead of Andrzej Parafianowicz (also 3.1 thousand). Out of the surveyed eight the smallest share in media coverage was recorded by Graś: 1.6 thousand, and Krawiec: 0.9 thousand. These figures, however, although relatively smaller, denote a strongly distinctive presence in the media.

The order looks somewhat different in terms of publications on the front pages of nationwide dailies. Here Marek Belka was ahead of Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz. The interior minister appeared in the headlines 68 times, while the President of the NBP 65 times. Meanwhile, Sławomir Nowak (33) came in third, ahead of Jan Rostowski (24). Sikorski (23) came in fifth, followed by Parafianowicz (15), Graś (7) and Krawiec (4).