The Media in Poland

Under communist rule, media in Poland was under heavy censorship. For nearly four decades, the government controlled every source of news for the public, hence determining exactly what the public should know, and what it shouldn’t. This almost complete censorship lasted till the people’s movement led by Solidarity put forward ‘the lessening of government censorship’ as one of its 21 demands in the Gdansk Agreement of August 1980. This agreement, coupled with Gorbachev’s new policy of glasnost, resulted in the reform of much of the censorship process. Although complete freedom of press was still far from being achieved, the passing of a few legislations ensured that the process of getting a completely free press was underway in Poland in the 1980s. However, this complete freedom was achieved only after the fall of communism in 1989. This initiated the subsequent transformation of the Polish media sphere.

On April 11, 1990, Polish parliament passed an anti-censorship act that modified the Press Act of 1984 implemented by the previous communist administration. With the sweeping economic reforms that were being implemented, the structure of the Polish media also underwent a transformation. In the print media, journalists who had previously worked for state owned newspapers now had the opportunity to take over the ownership of these papers. Also, the government opened the print media up to foreign investment, which soon led to the complete privatization of the print media sector with a majority of the newspapers being owned by foreign investors. The electronic media too, was subject to a number of reforms. The state-owned broadcasting broadcaster “Polish Radio and Television” was broken into separate entities – ‘Polish Radio’ and ‘Polish Television’ and transformed into public companies. Several policies encouraging commercial radio and television channels were also implemented, which led to a great increase in commercial interests in radio and TV as well as the surge in foreign investment in this media. However, the foreign investment in the broadcast sphere was not as high as that in the print sphere because the government had restricted foreign ownership of broadcast channels to 33 percent.

Since the implementation of these reforms, the Polish Press has by and large enjoyed absolute freedom in its reportage. However, there still exist certain laws framed in the Polish Constitution which are seen as barriers to absolute press freedom in the country today. One of the most crucial factors which impact press freedom in Poland is that journalists and editors are liable for criminal prosecution for a variety of acts which are not considered “criminal” in several other countries of the world. For instance, if an editor chooses not to publish a reader’s response, he/she runs the risk of having criminal proceedings initiated against him/her. Recently, the editor of one of the independent newspapers in a rural region of the country was sentenced to nine months of community service at 30 hours a month because he did not publish the reply of a local politician to articles the newspaper had run about him. Another such clause is, if a journalist does not take explicit permission to quote an interviewed person directly, he runs the same risk. Consider this law in the Indian context, and you would have all the reporters who make their day’s story quota by reporting the war of words between politicians fighting criminal cases in courts. Offending religious beliefs is another important clause that journalists are often tried under. In January 2010, the Polish Supreme Court imposed a 500,000 zloty (Rs. 75 lakh) fine on Polsat TV because a feminist activist invited on one of its shows had parodied a well-known presenter from the extremely conservative Catholic radio station Radio Maryja, and this was ruled to be offensive to Christian sensibilities. Apart from these legal restrictions placed on it, the Polish media is also threatened by a lack of objectivity in its reportage, and is characterized by a politically partisan nature. Almost all media, whether print or broadcast, have fairly evident political leanings.

In recent times, however, there have been changes in the media scenario in Poland in terms of the law. The government introduced certain legislative changes towards the end of December 2010 which have provided the media a certain degree of leeway in terms of the laws mentioned in this article. Upon overall analysis, the Polish media certainly seems to be a healthy, free institution. According to the Observatory for Media Freedom in Poland at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Poland ranked 24^th in the reporters Without Borders’ press freedom index in 2011-12 (as compared to 32^nd in 2010-11), higher than European heavyweights UK (28^th), France (38^th), Spain (39^th), as well as the USA (47^th) which saw a fall of 27 places compared to last year, primarily because of the arrest of journalists following the Wall Street protests. India, on this index, came in only at number 131. While this may not be a completely satisfying Index in terms of its basis and its methodology, it does provide a certain frame of reference. Going by this frame of reference, Poland seems to be taking great strides in terms of the freedom enjoyed by its press; however, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement.