Drone video angers foreign minister

Drone with a mounted camera. Photo: cc/wikimedia/Don McCullough

The video shows Sikorski’s palacial residence in Chobielin, near the central city of Bydgoszcz, including the minister’s garden and private tennis court.

Minister Sikorski told journalists, Monday, that he has filed a motion with prosecutors over the incident.

“I hope that the prosecutors, or the courts if need be, will draw the boundaries in this matter,” Sikorski said.

“This is new technology with which we haven’t had to deal with up until now,” he added.

“I think this is an interesting legal question on where the boundaries of privacy lie, for instance how close these camera-mounted drones can fly up to someone’s bathroom, for example,” the minister said half-jokingly.

Radoslaw Sikorski added that this problem not only concerns his person, but also many other politicians. Earlier on Twitter he wrote “civic laws concern everybody”.

Ratings plummet

Meanwhile, a new survey from CBOS pollsters shows that over the past month, public trust for Sikorski has plummeted by 15 percentage points.

While last month 50 percent of the survey’s respondents declared that they trusted Sikorski, that number now stands at 35 percent.

The drop in confidence in Poland’s foreign minister comes as a result of the recent tape scandal, in which Sikorski is alleged to have said in a conversation with former finance minister Jacek Rostowski that “The Polish-American alliance is worthless, even harmful, as it gives Poland a false sense of security. It’s bullshit.”

The survey was undertaken between 3-9 July on a representative selection of 943 adult Poles. (jb)

Source: IAR/PAP