the protracted hearings of the Sejm's special committee continued. On April 5, 2004 the committee officially finished proceedings. With a majority vote supported by the SLD and Samoobrona deputies to the committee, it came to the same conclusion as the penal court, according to which Rywin had been acting completely on his own. However, the dissenting minority, including committee chairman Tomasz Nałęcz, refused to back the report and began to compile minority reports. The Sejm then had to decide whether to accept the committee's official final report or one of the various minority reports as the outcome of the investigation. On September 24, 2004, the Sejm unexpectedly voted to accept the minority report that most radically departed from the majority report, and named the following people as the masterminds behind Rywin's mission: prime minister Leszek Miller (stepped down in May 2004) Aleksandra Jakubowska, deputy minister of culture in Miller's government, who was also in charge of the amendment of the law that could have benefited Agora S.A. Włodzimierz Czarzasty, another high-ranking SLD media policy-maker Robert Kwiatkowski, head of the Polish national public TV broadcaster Telewizja Polska, the second channel of which was proposed to be privatized and a possible target for an Agora S.A. takeover Lech Nikolski, Miller's Chief of Cabinet, later in charge of the Polish EU membership referendum as minister without portfolio. Long-term impact on political culture Former dissident Adam Michnik's reputation was damaged, as he was suspected to be more deeply entangled in the scandal, although in what way remains unclear. His friendly relations with members of the former communist political establishment were exposed. This increased the numbers of Poles who are convinced that politicians and opinion-leaders are involved with the large-scale shadow economy. The right-wing party Law and Justice, whose defining themes are the fight against crime and corruption, benefited from the affair, which raised its public profile. The party's deputy Zbigniew Ziobro authored the radical minority report which the Sejm passed. References Political scandals in Poland History of Poland (1989–present) 2002 in Poland Corruption in Poland