Polish journalism stuck at the crossroads

On 16–17 September 2024, the MFRR partner organisations conducted an advocacy mission to Warsaw, Poland, as a follow-up to the fact-finding mission of 2023. In light of the change in government, the focus of this year’s mission was on measures to reform public service media, protect journalists from Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), and propose reforms to the media landscape in line with the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA). For this purpose, the MFRR asked Krzysztof Bobinski to provide an overview of the dilemmas and challenges facing the Polish media community, media regulators, and the government.

Bobinski is President of Unia & Polska, a pro-European think-tank and member of the Polish Society of Journalists. Formerly, he was the Warsaw correspondent of the Financial Times of London until 2000, during which time he also contributed to the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, the Economist, and the BBC.

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

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More ambitious reform needed to secure media freedom in…

More ambitious reform needed to secure media freedom in Poland

The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) consortium completed a two-day mission to Poland, 16-17 September, where it held meetings with the Minister of Justice, Adam Bodnar, the Ministry of Culture as well as journalists, publishers, regulators, media law experts.

The mission focused on measures to reform public service media, to protect journalists from Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and proposals to reform the media landscape in line with the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA).

The meetings discussed the changes within the public service media since the Civic Coalition led government of Donald Tusk used contested legal mechanisms to remove senior figures at the public broadcaster, Telewizja Polska S.A. (TVP), and end the control exercised over it by the former government of the Law and Justice party, PiS.

The mission welcomed assurances from the Minister of Justice that the government would decriminalize defamation and ensure that the reforms to address SLAPPs will go beyond the minimum scope set by the EU Directive and apply to domestic SLAPP cases as well as cross-border ones. This is particularly significant as nearly all of the SLAPP cases in Poland recorded by the CASE Coalition involve domestic actors only. The Ministry also says it has moved swiftly to withdraw the 37 SLAPP cases that had been launched by the previous cabinet.

The Ministry of Culture has set out a timetable to bring Polish legislation in line with the EMFA. Public consultation on the media law reforms closes on 23 September and the ministry plans to issue a draft law before the end of the year before becoming law by the summer of 2025.The ministry proposes to reform the governance and operations of the national broadcast regulator KRRiT that oversees all broadcast media, and to provide direct state funding based on 0.09% of the annual GDP.

The government has been criticized in several quarters for appearing to drag its feet in enacting reforms and providing legal and financial certainty to the public broadcaster which has been operating in a state of ‘liquidation’ since the beginning of the year. The delay may, in part, be explained by the need to wait for the presidential elections due in 2025, before which any new reform would likely be vetoed by the current President, Andrzej Duda.

Other proposals include, improving media ownership transparency, introducing a mechanism for assessing and safe-guarding media pluralism, and ending the abuse of state advertising to reward government allies in the media. There is also a discussion around ending the direct funding and ownership of media by local governments and to instead establish a public fund to support independent regional media.

Many commentators called for more ambitious reforms of public media to ensure it is fit for the digital age and can provide impactful public service journalism for all communities and demographics across the country.

The state of TVP meanwhile is mixed. While it is no longer the propaganda tool of one political party and is providing a much more balanced brand of political coverage, the main news channel, TVP INFO, has lost over 70% of its audience, mostly to the TV Republika that is supportive of the Law and Justice party. TVP still has much work to do to rebuild its audience and credibility.

While enormous challenges remain, the overall outlook for Polish media is incomparably better than it was one year ago when MFRR issued its pre-election report, Media Freedom at a Crossroads.

The Media Freedom Rapid Response will publish a full report on its findings in October. In the meantime we wish to thank all of the interlocutors who took the time to meet with us. The mission partners included the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), the International Press Institute (IPI), ARTICLE 19 Europe, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and Free Press Unlimited (FPU).

This statement was coordinated by the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States, Candidate Countries and Ukraine.

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Poland: International advocacy mission to assess media freedom reforms

On 16 and 17 September, the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) partners will conduct an international mission to assess the on-going reforms in the media and press freedom in Poland.

The current mission builds on the 2023 mission by the MFRR ahead of the parliamentary elections, which produced a sobering report highlighting the media’s economic struggle amid a polarised media landscape, loss of editorial independence by public service media, and frequent use of vexatious lawsuits by the public figures against critical journalists.

The 2024 mission will be led by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom and co-led by the International Press Institute. The mission will also see the participation of other MFRR representatives: the European Federation of Journalists, Free Press Unlimited, and ARTICLE 19 Europe.

The 2024 mission will focus on reforms of the public service broadcasters, draft media legislation, editorial independence, economic sustainability, and media pluralism . It will also examine the government’s preparations to implement the EU’s European Media Freedom Act and Anti-SLAPP Directive.

The MFRR’s interlocutors will include a broad group of media experts and journalists, relevant authorities, and legislators.

The findings and conclusions will be spelt out in a report, assessing the pace of media reform in Poland and implementation of the EMFA, as well as measures countering SLAPPs. It will include a set of recommendations for decision-makers on upholding media freedom in line with European and international freedom of expression standards. The MFRR team will meet the media to discuss the findings on 17 September at 12 pm at the Pracownia Duży Pokój, 4/6 Warecka Street, 00-040 Warsaw.

For inquiries, please contact Olena Cherniavska, Advocacy Officer/ECPMF: at olena.cherniavska@ecpmf.eu or +4915164840621 & Katia Mierzejewska, Comms and Media Officer/ARTICLE 19 Europe, at Katia.Mierzejewska@article19.org or on +31620466634

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Poland: Regulator Fine against TVN appears to punish independent…

Poland: Regulator Fine against TVN appears to punish independent journalism

Poland’s politically controlled media regulator punishes private TV channel for a documentary on child abuse in the church

The undersigned partner organizations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) today condemn the 550.000 PLN (approximately 127.000 EUR) fine issued by Poland’s National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) to TVN, one of Poland’s largest broadcasters. The fine is yet another reminder of the urgent need to reform Poland’s politicized regulator.

KRRiT issued the fine on March 6 following its investigation into a documentary film aired by TVN in March 2023. The documentary, which was part of a series on child abuse in the Catholic Church, delved into allegations surrounding Pope John Paul II’s potential involvement in covering up the scandal.

KRRiT is headed by Maciej Świrski, appointed by the parliament in 2022, who is known to be a close ally of the former governing Law and Justice (PiS) party. KRRiT remains an institution under PiS influence with a history of harassing independent and opposition media under the previous government. This included issuing arbitrary fines and delaying decisions on license renewals for TVN, TVN24 and TOK FM, which breached the body’s own rules and created economic uncertainty for targeted independent outlets.

Under Świrski, KRRiT fined TOK FM 80.000 PLN (roughly 19.000 EUR) in April 2023 for ‘inciting hatred’ when a commentator claimed that new school history books reminded him of language used in Nazi youth textbooks. It also fined Eurozet/Radio Zet 476.000 PLN for ‘promoting false information’ for a broadcast claiming US secret services had transported Ukraine’s President Zelensky through Poland without seeking assistance or properly informing Polish authorities.

KRRiT has yet to rule on two more cases against TVN, for a documentary on the Smoleńsk air tragedy and a report on police actions against a woman admitted to hospital after taking an abortion pill.

The latest fine against TVN demonstrates the dangers that a politically captured media regulator poses to media freedom as it misuses its powers to punish independent journalism and curtail media freedom. KRRiT, left unchecked, is reaching beyond its constitutional role of media regulator and acting like a public censor by punishing outlets for legitimate, if uncomfortable, public interest journalism.

The independence of regulatory bodies is vital for the transparent and impartial oversight of broadcast media and to guarantee media pluralism and media freedoms. It is also a requirement of both the European Union’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive and the new Media Freedom Act.

As part of the ongoing reforms of the media sector, we call on the new government led by the Civic Coalition (KO) to ensure that media regulators, as with the public service media, are entirely independent of political and governmental control, and have no power to interfere in the editorial decisions of newsrooms.

Signed by:

International Press Institute (IPI)
European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)
European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
ARTICLE 19 Europe

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Poland: MFRR reasserts recommendations for democratic reform for press…

Poland: MFRR reasserts recommendations for democratic reform for press freedom and public media

The undersigned partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) today renew their call for democratic and comprehensive reform to Poland’s public broadcasters which creates systematic safeguards to limit the ability of all governments, future and present, to meddle in editorial or institutional independence of the country’s public media.

The MFRR coalition also reaffirms the set of recommendations for steps that can be taken by the new coalition government to improve the wider situation for media freedom and independent journalism in Poland. These recommendations were jointly developed following a recent mission of the MFRR to Warsaw ahead of the election.

Our organisations jointly urge the new Civic Platform-led government to heed the concerns and recommendations of media freedom organisations. We call on political leaders to ensure that all reforms to the media space in Poland – both underway and planned – adhere to democratic values and follow the rule of law.

The call comes amidst an ongoing battle over the future of public broadcaster TVP and Polish Radio. Since coming to power, the new government abruptly dismissed the supervisory bodies of TVP and national news agency PAP and put the public media into liquidation, an unprecedented move which uses a legal loophole to allow the government to continue financing the broadcaster while also making internal changes.

While the new administration has defended the moves as necessary to dismantle the propaganda output of TVP, the former ruling party has criticized the changes as undemocratic and aimed at cementing a new form of political control over the channels.

While the MFRR continues to support much needed reforms by the new coalition government to restore the impartiality, reliability and professionalism of public media in Poland, the means used to do so must be democratic, legal and truly aimed at increasing pluralistic and balanced coverage, prioritizing the public interest over any one political interest.

With a new law on public service media reportedly being developed by the coalition parties, our organizations also call on the new government to conduct a thorough consultative process on any proposed legislative changes, urge that that the concerns of the media community are heeded, and stress that reforms are fully in line with the principles outlined in the European Commission’s European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), particularly regarding guarantees for political independence.

Crucially, any reforms by the new government must not perpetuate the cycle of capture and control that was taken to extremes by the Law and Justice (PiS) party during its years in power and ensure that deep structural changes to the management and regulation of TVP and Polish Radio are undertaken which will put an end to repeated periods of politicization after elections.

Given the importance of regulation of public media in Poland, the new administration must address the National Media Council (NMC), which has been identified as a key instrument created by PiS to wield greater control over TVP. The NMC remains an unconstitutional body dominated by PiS appointees and should be addressed under relevant law.

Democratic changes to address the ongoing crisis at public media in Poland are possible, but must be made with restraint and the utmost respect for the rule of law and democracy. The MFRR therefore reasserts the recommendations regarding the future of the public media that were made jointly by our organisations in September 2023 ahead of the election and calls on the new government to carefully consider and implement them. The full MFRR mission report can be read here.

Recommendations

Public service media

Public broadcasting requires a root and branch reform of both the governance structures and financing mechanism to guarantee political independence and the fulfilling of the public service remit. In particular:
The appointment process for management and governing bodies must be depoliticised with candidates appointed through transparent, open, and non-discriminatory procedures on the basis of their professional skills and experience with guarantees of political neutrality.
PSM funding must be conducted through arms-length decision making ideally through a form of TV licensing to ensure that the funds are free of political interference. Any government supplementary allocation should be taken in transparent decision making, that guarantees stable long-term financing, adequate to fulfil the public service mission.

———

The MFRR mission made further recommendations on wider improvements to the press freedom landscape in Poland.

Media regulation

Media regulators must be able to operate fully independent of government in line with Article 30 of the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive that demands regulators are legally distinct from government and functionally independent of their respective government. Reform of KRRiT should include:

Depoliticising the appointments process to ensure candidates are appointed through transparent, open, and non-discriminatory procedures on the basis of their professional skills and experience with explicit guarantees of political neutrality.
Ensuring all processes with respect to licensing and investigations into breaches of the code are subject to clear and transparent procedures and collegiate decision making. Failure to meet those procedures, such as undue delays in licensing decisions, or manifestly politicized investigations, must have clear consequences for those responsible with commensurate compensation provided to the broadcaster affected.
All decisions must be duly justified in line with the regulatory powers of the office and broadcast code.
All investigations into alleged breaches of the broadcast code must be conducted by the full board and not placed in the hands of the Chair alone. Investigations should follow due process allowing the accused to present its arguments. Decisions should be accompanied by detailed justifications. There should be an appeals process for condemned media including the option to revisit rulings in the courts in line with European standards of free expression.
Information should be publicly available on the handling of all complaints received with detailed reports issued at least annually on all decisions with due justification.

Media pluralism

Media pluralism must be ensured through a diverse range of media and owners that operate independently of the state with strong guarantees of editorial independence. Recommended measures include:

PKN Orlen should be required to immediately divest its media investments and state-controlled companies, outside of the public media framework, should be barred from owning media.
A media plurality test should be developed to measure the impact of transfers of ownership in the media market on pluralism and to guarantee media pluralism.
The government must guarantee a level economic playing field for all media and end practices that discriminate against, and create a negative investment climate for, private media operating independent of government.
Media should guarantee minimum levels of editorial independence and ethical standards that protect the newsroom from external interference and ensure journalistic integrity.

State support to media

The discriminatory use of state resources to manipulate the media market must end.
Public funds and state advertising must be distributed according to transparent, objective, proportionate, and non-discriminatory criteria through open, proportionate, and non-discriminatory procedures.
Annual reports should be issued on the distribution of all state advertising to media. This should include details of revenue from contracts with state bodies received by companies that belong to the same business grouping as media companies.
The awarding of all public contracts to companies whose beneficial owners also own media must be subject to particularly careful scrutiny and safeguards to ensure that the awarding of such contracts are not used to influence editorial content of those media.

Vexatious lawsuits

The judicial appointment procedure must be transparent and independent in practice and in line with European norms and standards.
The judiciary must be properly trained on the use of strategic lawsuits and mechanisms should be put in place allowing for the early dismissal of evidently vexatious cases and a requirement for claimants to cover the cost of proceedings in such instances.
Defamation must be decriminalized and become a matter for civil law only.
The government must end the sponsoring of self evidently vexatious lawsuits taken against media or other actors, for legitimate criticism and free expression.

Signed by:

ARTICLE 19 Europe
European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)
European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
Free Press Unlimited (FPU)
International Press Institute (IPI)
OBC Transeuropa (OBCT)

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Poland: Upheaval at Polish public broadcaster must lead to…

Upheaval at Polish public broadcaster must lead to comprehensive reform to restore and safeguard independence

Sudden dismissal of supervisory boards risks setting dangerous precedent. The new Polish government’s abrupt dismissal of the supervisory bodies of the country’s public television broadcaster TVP and national news agency PAP risks setting an alarming precedent that must be urgently rectified by new rules to permanently protect these institutions’ independence, the International Press Institute (IPI) said today.

The previous Law and Justice (PiS) government had shamelessly turned Poland’s public media into instruments of state propaganda. The new coalition’s goal of ending this situation is therefore unquestionably justified. However, these reform efforts must take care not to perpetuate a cycle of politicization or perceived politicization. The new government must now work to pass comprehensive reform that guarantees the right of Poland’s public media to work freely and shields them from future interference by political parties of all stripes.

On Tuesday, December 19, the new parliament passed a resolution calling for the restoration of “impartiality and reliability of the public media.”

On Wednesday, the minister of culture, Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, announced the appointment of new supervisory boards for public television, public radio and the news agency PAP, as well as the appointment of new management in the three government-owned companies.

Minutes after the dismissal of the supervisory boards, TVP’s 24-hour news channel TVP Info, was taken off air, while TVP’s Channel One aired no news bulletins throughout the day on Wednesday.

The changes provoked a furious reaction from the outgoing party of Law and Justice (PiS) whose members staged an overnight sit-in on Tuesday in the broadcaster’s headquarters, also joined by PiS leader, Jaroslaw Kaczyński.

The new government asserted its right to act on two main grounds: firstly that the establishment of the National Media Council, the supervisory body for public TV and Radio set up by PiS in early 2016, had been ruled unconstitutional in December 2016; and secondly that the ministry of culture, as the sole owner of the public radio and TV, must now take on the NMC responsibilities and exercise the authority to restore impartiality to public media.

During their eight years in government (2015 to 2023) PiS converted the public media into an unapologetically hardline propaganda outfit designed not only to promote government policy but also to aggressively delegitimize its critics and the political opposition.

IPI visited Poland in September as part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response mission and concluded that the public media had been fully converted into a propaganda arm of the ruling party. Successive reports of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) monitoring of Poland’s elections concluded that PiS “enjoyed clear advantage through its undue influence over the use of state resources and public media” during the 2023 October elections; and that the broadcaster was ‘frequently portraying the [party’s] main challenger as a threat to Polish values and national interests’ in the 2020 Presidential elections.

“While there is no question that the TVP and Polish Radio are both in need of drastic reform, IPI is troubled by the approach adopted that appears to be stretching the rule of law,” said IPI Deputy Director Scott Griffen. “While the ultimate aim is unquestionably legitimate, such an act may set a dangerous precedent for every incoming government to use legal loopholes to overturn the actions of the previous government.”

“The government must now ensure that what emerges from the changes is a fully independent public broadcaster that represents the voices and views of all of society without discrimination. The Tusk government must work with journalists groups and media experts from across Poland to establish the necessary legal safeguards that can protect public media in the future from all forms of political interference.”

The Media Freedom Rapid Responses mission report from September 2023 outlines the full range of challenges facing media freedom in Poland including media pluralism, vexatious lawsuits and safety of journalists. We urge the Civic Platform-led government to make media independence and journalists rights a central element of their programme.

This statement by IPI is part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States, Candidate Countries, and Ukraine. The project is co-funded by the European Commission.

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Poland: Media freedom reform faces obstacles after opposition victory

After coming first in the parliamentary elections on October 15, Poland’s centrist opposition parties, led by Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition, look set to form a coalition government in the weeks ahead.

After eight years of rule by the hard-right conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, the new government will have a full plate as it sets out to rebuild Poland’s democratic pillars, from the courts to the state-owned media. The change in government could also usher in broader changes to the media landscape.

In the years after PiS came to power in 2015, the media freedom situation in Poland deteriorated sharply amidst an attack on critical and independent media.

The state-owned media was one of the government’s first targets: PiS swiftly pushed through legislation that allowed it to assert control over the country’s public broadcaster and established a National Media Council tasked with appointing the management of state-owned broadcaster TVP, Polish Radio and the PAP news agency.

These efforts to control the media extended to private media outlets too; for example, state-controlled oil company PKN Orlen purchased the country’s largest regional newspaper publisher Polska Press from its German owner in 2021, which resulted in most of the newspapers’ editors then being replaced and a marked switch in editorial lines favourable to PiS.

As outlined in a recent report by the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) produced ahead of the election, these pressures by PiS came on top of multi-pronged campaign of regulatory, financial and legislative pressure aimed at undermining the influence of major media critical of the government, including the use of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs).

While hopes are high this democratic opening in Poland will lead to a positive reform of the media landscape in line with EU values and roll back the media capture campaign of the previous government, the path forward is strewn with pitfalls and obstacles.

Spotlight on TVP

As the three opposition groupings — Tusk’s Civic Coalition, Third Way (an alliance of the agrarian Polish People’s Party and the centrist Poland 2050), and the Left — work on a coalition agreement, the spotlight is on TVP, which is notorious for its pro-Law and Justice coverage.

As the OSCE noted after the elections this fall, its “distorted and openly partisan coverage” helped provide a clear advantage to the ruling party. The MFRR report also highlighted the role of TVP in parroting the PiS party line and attacking the opposition parties.

Even before they won the elections, opposition leaders had indicated that it would be a priority for them if they came to power. “We will need exactly 24 hours for PiS government television to turn into public television,” said Tusk, who is expected to head the new government, at a pre-election rally in September.

However, in reality the process for reform looks set to take longer. The new government will have to reckon with the National Media Council, whose members’ term does not end until 2028. It is not simply a matter of changing the law: any attempts by the new parliamentary majority to amend media legislation could be blocked by President Andrzej Duda, who hails from PiS but left the party when he was elected president in 2015, using his right to veto. For this reason, an alternative approach is reportedly being considered: placing the public media in a state of liquidation, in which case they would be managed by receiverships – a form of compulsory administration – which the NMC would be unable to dismiss.

“A lot of things can be done without changing the existing laws, on the basis of currently existing law and with a parliamentary majority,” said Szymon Hołownia, the leader of the Poland 2050 party, in a conversation with Super Express broadcast on October 30, referring to the public media.

In this context, the National Media Council warned in a statement published on October 27 that “an attempt to undermine the laws, e.g. by repealing resolutions on the appointment of members of the National Broadcasting Council and the National Media Council, who have a statutory six-year term of office, by liquidating public media companies, or by any other means that circumvents the statutory procedure, will be a violation of the law and the Constitution. The very announcement of the liquidation of the public media is an act to the detriment of Polish culture and raison d’état.”

As outlined by IPI in a previous analysis, the NMC – a body established by PiS after a controversial change to the media law – has been an integral part of the institutional machinery of media capture which PiS has constructed in the last few years. While the PiS-dominated body seems determined to dig in and block democratic reform to the broadcasters it oversees, addressing the broadcaster’s spread of disinformation and party propaganda is seen as being vital moving forward.

However, the mechanisms used by the opposition to do so will be closely scrutinized by the EU. Media freedom groups will be urging the future government to ensure that any changes are enacted in a democratic and legal manner and aimed at restoring editorial and institutional independence to both the public media and its oversight bodies.

Rather than simply repeat the cycle of politicized purges and replacements enacted by previous administrations on both the left and right, the future government will face calls to ensure systemic reforms which reduce the influence of all ruling parties to meddle in the broadcaster’s management and editorial line. To do so, the government will have to look beyond short-term political opportunism towards more sustained democratic recovery.

The fate of Polska Press

Eyes are also on PKN Orlen, with speculation about what might happen to Polska Press amid the change in government and the expected changes in management at Poland’s state-owned companies — as well as media reports that Law and Justice plans to establish a new right-wing media company as the party moves into opposition. So far, Orlen has denied reports by news platform Onet that it plans to sell Polska Press rapidly before a new, opposition-led government is formed.

“Orlen has not and is not conducting any talks on the sale of Polska Press. The Orlen Group consistently implements its strategy, which is focused on the development of modern communication channels with customers, increasing digitization of sales formats and the construction of an e-commerce platform, among other things. The investment in Polska Press is part of this strategy, in particular in terms of building an integrated digital services platform,” wrote the company’s press office in its response to Onet.

Post-election changes at state-owned companies are also expected to have implications for spending on state advertising at private media outlets from across the political spectrum. Analysis of Kantar Media data by Tadeusz Kowalski, a media studies professor at the University of Warsaw, showed that state-owned companies have been spending higher amounts on advertising in media outlets that support the government. The abuse of state advertising funds to reward favourable coverage while draining critical media of revenue has long been criticized by international media freedom groups.

The matter of independent media regulation will also be on the agenda. Under PiS, the National Broadcasting Council, KRRiT, has been accused of abusing its licensing powers to create business uncertainty and applying arbitrary financial penalties to pressure independent newsrooms. Currently the influential regulator is dominated by PiS appointees. Creating the conditions for the body to be returned to democratic management by non-political figures will also face serious challenges.

With local and European Parliament elections scheduled for 2024, the stakes are high. While the post-election changes in Poland could usher in a new era of greater media freedom, undoing damage done by the outgoing Law and Justice government, there are several thorny issues to be dealt with — from the fate of TVP to that of Polska Press — and the new government will have to tread carefully.

The real challenge for the incoming coalition government will be to take a long-term view, ensuring that the reforms are not simply a purge, but democratic changes which fundamentally depoliticize the broadcasters and strengthen editorial independence from all governments, now and in the future.

This article was commissioned by IPI as part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and candidate countries. The project is co-funded by the European Commission.

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Poland’s unfair election reinforces demands for Europe-wide Media Freedom…

Poland’s unfair election reinforces demands for Europe-wide Media Freedom Act

As the European Parliament, Council and Commission enter the final negotiations on the EMFA, media freedom and human rights groups today call for the adoption of the Parliament’s text, which, while also in need of further strengthening, is currently the version best equipped to roll back the creeping spread of media capture.

The recent elections in Poland underscore the need for a strong EMFA. The opposition won a majority, despite the fact the governing PiS party “enjoyed clear advantage through its undue influence over the use of state resources and the public media”, according to an interim report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The recent report Media freedom at a crossroads by the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) following a pre-election mission in early September highlighted the extent of political capture of the media in Poland including:

Converting public media into the propaganda arm of the government.
Weaponizing media regulators to issue arbitrary and punishing fines while threatening license removal of independent and critical broadcast media.
Taking over the largest regional media network through the state-controlled energy company, leading to a swift clear out of editors, who were replaced by pro-government figures.
Abusing of state finances to:
- withdraw crucial advertising funds from critical media and redirect it to pro-government outlet
- fund an unprecedented wave of vexatious lawsuits, or SLAPPs, against critical journalists.

In the case of Poland, state-led media capture was not yet extensive enough to fully control the news and information space, with private independent media demonstrating high levels of resilience. This is in part due to the financial strength of Polish media operating in a significantly larger market than in many other EU countries. However, there are not sufficient safeguards in place to prevent further capture.

The electoral defeat of PiS does not diminish the threat of media capture, particularly in countries where smaller markets can leave media much more vulnerable to state pressure, and must not distract European policy makers from building the necessary safeguards regardless of whichever governments are in power.

If the EU is serious about protecting media freedom in Europe, and thereby ensuring free and fair elections, it must adopt the European Parliament’s position on the EMFA with all its safeguards related to surveillance, public service media, ownership transparency, editorial independence, independent national and Europe wide media regulators, media pluralism and the misuse and abuse of state funds.

With European elections due next year, the EU must act now to establish the rules, principles and standards necessary to protect against the further and future erosion of media freedoms in Europe.

Signed by:

ARTICLE 19 Europe
European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)
European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
Free Press Unlimited (FPU)
International Press Institute (IPI)
OBC Transeuropa (OBCT)
Association of European Journalists (AEJ Belgium)
Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD)
Society of Journalists, Warsaw

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Media freedom at a crossroads: Journalism in Poland faces…

Media freedom at a crossroads: Journalism in Poland faces uncertain future ahead of election

The Media Freedom Rapid Response today issued its report “Media Freedom at a crossroads: Journalism in Poland faces uncertain future ahead of election” following its mission to Warsaw on 11 – 13 September.

The report explores how media capture and the widespread use of vexatious lawsuits have been used to create a hostile climate for independent journalism that weakens media’s ability to contribute to free and fair elections.

Key findings include:

The public media have been fully converted into a propaganda arm of the ruling party.
The National Broadcasting Council, KRRiT, has abused its licensing powers to create business uncertainty and is applying arbitrary financial penalties to impose fear and self-censorship in newsrooms.
Media pluralism was compromised when, in 2021, the state-controlled oil company, PKN Orlen, took over the largest regional media company, Polska Press. The subsequent editorial purge and shift in editorial lines to favour the ruling party ahead of upcoming elections makes it one of the most flagrant examples of media capture in Europe.
State advertising has been weaponised by the government to fund favourable media outlets and undermine independent journalism which exacerbates the financial pressure on media.
Polish media are subjected to one of the largest number of vexatious lawsuits, or SLAPPs, in the European Union. Most are initiated by ruling party politicians, state companies, and public institutions and therefore financed by public money.
While Polish media have proved resilient thanks to the presence of foreign owners, the hostile economic climate may force many to withdraw. Such a move is likely to have a devastating impact on media pluralism.
The overwhelming majority of commentators met by the mission expressed deep concern that the country was at a crossroads and that four more years of the current policy would accelerate media capture and push Poland down the path to emulating the media environment in Hungary, Turkey, or Russia.

The mission was organised by the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR). The delegation comprised of representatives of ARTICLE 19 Europe, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Free Press Unlimited (FPU), and International Press Institute (IPI). The mission took place in Warsaw between 11 – 13 September and met with a wide range of editors, journalists, regulators, civil society groups, lawyers, the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Ministry of Culture.

A Polish language translation of the report will be published shortly.

Download the report [ENG]

Download the report [PL]

Press contacts

ENG: Jordan Higgins (jordan.higgins@ecpmf.eu)

POL: Katia Mierzejewska (katiamierzejewska@article19.org)

This mission report was coordinated by the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and candidate countries.

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Report Launch: Relocation of journalists in distress in the…

Report Launch: Relocation of journalists in distress in the European Union

Uncovering the truth is dangerous and can put journalists and media workers at serious risk. When a journalist finds him- or herself in danger because someone wants to keep the public in the dark, a situation can occur where the only way to safety is to seek refuge in another country. However, restrictive asylum and visa policies all too often hamper the pathways to international protection.

On October 9th 10:30-11:30 CEST, the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) will present the findings of a thematic fact-finding mission organised earlier this year, which aims to contribute to a better understanding of six pioneering relocation mechanisms for journalists in distress within the European Union. For this purpose, the MFRR partners examined existing schemes in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Poland, revealing salient differences and similarities in the scope and features of the responses.

Join us at the Czech Permanent Representation in Brussels or online for the report launch. The Czech mission to Brussels will host the conference. The Deputy Head of the Czech Permanent Representation to the EU Permanent Representative to the Political and Security Committee Ambassador Jitka Látal Znamenáčková will open the presentation. Professor Can Yeğinsu will then discuss the idea of emergency visa for journalists, which he developed as part of the High Level Panel of Legal Experts of the Media Freedom Coalition. Further, in a panel discussion, a journalist in exile will discuss their situation and path to obtain the emergency visa in an EU Member State. Lastly, the report’s authors will present key findings, conclusions and recommendations, and there will be time for a Q&A session.

This mission was coordinated by the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and candidate countries.