Polish journalism stuck at the crossroads

Poland’s parliamentary election in October  2023 saw the victory of a pro democratic coalition over the populist Law and Justice (PiS) party in power from the autumn of 2015. Once  elected, PiS seized  control the country’s public service media (PSM) – television (TVP) public radio (PR) as well as the Polish Press Agency (PAP) . The government also sought to influence private media (both local and foreign owned) combining intimidation with bribery based on promising the placement of government advertising to win the favour of newspapers, broadcasters and magazines. PSM management appointments came under ruling party control. Under PiS daily newscasts consisted of  pro government propaganda reaching a crescendo at election times when aggressive propaganda was aimed against  democratic opposition candidates and the government politicians’ election pledges were presented in mellifluous tones. Journalistic standards hit rock bottom and any notion of an impartial, fair minded and informative PSM thought to be essential to a well functioning democracy became a distant dream.

  

Listeners, viewers and readers came to rely on private media both local and foreign such as the US owned TVN television station or the locally owned TOK FM talk radio and the independent Gazeta Wyborcza to provide an alternative view.  But the private sector also had its black sheep as major broadcasters like RMF owned by Bauer , the German media conglomerate, or Polsat TV owned by Zygmunt Solorz, a Polish oligarch owning major energy businesses, toned down critical coverage of the government in return for favours in the form of government funded advertising  and assurances that no hostile moves would be made against them by official tax or other controllers. Wirtualna Polska, a locally owned internet company, made a habit of running pro government content under journalistic pseudonyms in return for government funding.

 

Information about these practices has appeared since the fall of the PiS government, and key executives responsible for these practices have been quietly sacked, Wirtualna Polska has engineered a complete makeover to re-establish its reputation and Polsat TV has returned to impartial news reporting. But maybe predictably the industry’s private sector  as a whole has failed to analise how it defended or failed to defend journalistic standards at this difficult time. The Izba Wydawców Prasy, (the Chamber of Press Publishers) which represents the Polish newspaper publishers and other media organisations has avoided any public discussion of these issues and newspapers have, in the main, avoided any analysis of the implications of what really went on between 2015 – 2023, This is a major failure as we seek to restore journalistic standards in Poland.

 

It would appear that setting the public service media to rights would be simpler than rebuilding journalistic standards in the private sector.

 

But the task facing reformers of TVP and PR is more of a challenge because any legal change requires new legislation which can be delivered by the two houses of parliament where the democratic coalition has a majority but Andrzej Duda, the president who favours the former Law and Justice regime and  holds the right to veto legislation.  He is in power till May 2025 and   progress can only be made on reform if a pro democracy candidate is elected in May next year.

 

With support for PiS running at 30 percent at the same level as that of the Civic Coalition  (KO) which heads the democratic coalition, Donald Tusk , the KO leader has to be careful not to give PiS supporters cause for criticism  as he seeks to build a majority for the democrats.  This appears to  be his plan which is reminiscent of Sir Robert Walpoles, Britian’s first prime minister’s famous dictum “let sleeping dogs lie”. Thus Donald Tusk wants to avoid a row with PiS which continues to maintain that their model of the PSM was the most democratic and pluralistic model ever.

 

Thus work will continue slowly on new PSM legislation  and it seems drafts will only be sent to parliament for approval  only when Poland has a new president.

 

Initially the new government dismissed the old pro PiS management from TVP and PR thanks to a legal device under which they put both organisations and PAP into liquidation and then appointed a liquidator of their choice. These liquidators thus run the PSM companies as director generals seemingly in finitum or at least until new legislation is passed.

 

The greatest challenge, though, is to put in place a system in which the PSM are independent of external pressure which includes government officials, politicians, lobbyists working for powerful corporations  and others who would like influence the public message. Politicians are the greatest threat.

 

The record  so far is not encouraging. The process by which the current directors of PSM (the liquidators) were appointed was not transparent. It seems that they were appointed on the basis of recommendations from coalition politicians. Each of the three parties sought to make sure that they would have their supporters in key positions. The new appointees then proceeded to appoint people they knew to replace journalists tainted by their support for PiS. Also it seems that many PiS supporters are still in place. These methods do not bode well for the future when a new management structure will be put in place.

 

The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (MkiDN) which is responsible for PSM and has been mandated to prepare legislation transposing the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) into Polish law admits in a recent consultation  document that legislation in place till 2015 regulating management appointments in PSM while  ‘formally guaranteeing PSM independence’  nevertheless has procedures which mean that ’PSM are dependent on external actors who enjoy unlimited possibilities of influencing their management’.

 

These consultations close on September 23 but whatever their outcome it seems that Donald Tusk, the prime minister will have the final say on the degree to which PSM will be independent.

 

Unfortunately it seems that Tusk and consequently his party (KO) give little priority to media freedom issues. His main concern up till now has been to make sure that the stream of PiS propaganda put out by PSM be stopped and that has happened. Further than that, he has in the past showed little interest in PSM putting his trust more in private broadcasters whose owners he felt would be more inclined to support his free market policies. KO events in the past eight months have devoted little time to  freedom media issues. If anything, Tusk fears that in future a reformed public media might be taken over again by a populist party and repeat the PiS performance  of 2016 – 2023.

 

If truth be told the PSM cause currently attracts little interest in the population at large. When PiS was in power opponents of the PiS government watched TVN and listened to private radio stations while TVP and PR were favoured by PiS supporters.  After the election  in 2023 the pro democracy electorate stayed with TVN and tended to ignore the new politically correct but lack lustre  PSM news casts now free of PiS control. Meanwhile  unhappy and fiercely loyal  PiS supporters migrated from TVP and PR to Republica, a tv station owned by PiS, which now broadcasts the rabid propaganda which was pumped out by the PiS controlled PSM.  On top of this there are signs of ‘news fatigue’  in the population at large with over half of the below 34 year olds not watching television at all. Those who do watch TV are the  the over sixties. 93  per cent of this age group switch their sets on every day.

 

Thus the  challenge is not only to keep the politicians from threatening PSM independence but also to reinvent the public service media as the go to medium for news and by the population at large. So far no one is asking what, actually, the PSM are for,  yet. But they soon will.

 

Amidst these major audience shifts and desultory debates about the future shape of PSM several media related issues are being completely ignored. But they are important to the future of journalism in Poland. 

 

One  major issue which has to be addressed by anyone who is looking to reform Polish journalism as it emerges from eight years of rule by politicians who did not  respect media freedom. This is the problem of the working conditions of media people, their remuneration and newsroom  relationships between management, editors and rank and file journalists. This also about the conditions which women journalists have to suffer at work. It is also about respecting the right of  journalistic staff to have some influence over editorial policies, even the appointments of their bosses and the future of the companies they whom they work. This includes guarantees  for the right of professional  journalists to write the truth within the confines of a general editorial policy agreed consensually with media owners.   Such mechanisms could be in line with recommendations originally attached by the European Commission to its draft regulation which seem to have been forgotten in the general debate about EMFA.

 

The problem in Polish journalism though is that while owners of media organisations and senior journalists have no interest in democratising management practices  rank and file journalists also don’t appear to be very interested. One veteran journalist remarked when asked about giving writers and editors a  say  in the  election of the chief editor remarked “what you mean asking the actors to elect the theatre director?”.

 

Another huge subject is mobbing and sexual molestation which have been rife in Polish news rooms. While individual cases do get written up in the media, victims of such practices generally fail to report them. A study of sexual harassment conducted by Poland’s Zamenhof Institute in 2023  (www.zamenhof.pl) asked 268 women journalists about their experience at work.  59 per cent replied that they had experienced sexual molestation of some kind at work while 5 per cent reported that they had been actually forced to have sex against their will. The report failed to attract much media attention.

 

Paulina Januszewska, a working journalist, earlier this year published a book called “Gównodziennikarstwo” (Shitjournalism) which chronicles the various pathologies in Polish journalism. Mainstream media have, so far, paid it scant regard.

 

It is essential that media owners take steps to limit this kind of behaviour. Pay scales must also be adjusted to eliminate the exploitation  of  young reporters and improve wage levels across the board which would include limiting huge salaries for well known  journalists. This would help to make newsrooms happier places and if management were to pursue policies aiming at establishing civilized relationships between the rank and file and senior editors. Only then would journalists be able to do their jobs properly and respecting ethical standards and resisting attempts to undermine their independence.

 

Attention to introducing laws and regulations, transparency and the establishment of institutional safeguards against attempts to capture media by external actors are important. However these mechanisms will only work  if reasonably well paid professional journalists enjoy the respect of their superiors  at work. Only then can Polish journalism play the role that is required of it in a well ordered democracy. 

Krzysztof Bobinski, Society of Journalists, Warsaw