After several years of political changes in Poland, a stable and clear
relationship model between the
political system and the media has not been established yet. It turned out that
it is still impossible to work out the standards of mutual relation accepted by
both politicians and journalists. Furthermore, the liaisons between the world of
politics and the media can be described as the state of the permanent conflict.
All Polish political parties try to affect or even manipulate the media, and
also journalists do not avoid political engagement, especially during the
elections. One can also observe some considerable personal liaisons between
journalists and politicians.
The
majority of media in Poland constantly exercise their constitutional and legal
freedom of the press, gained at the beginning of the past decade. However, there
are still some areas in the Polish communication landscape, where politicians
are influential and they do not intend to change it.
Major
part of the Polish press distribution market is still under control of the state
agency ęRUCHł. Its privatisation, which was one of the main goals of many
governments in succession, has not come into effect yet. At present, Polish
Press Agency partly privatised (in December, 1997 PPA took the form of a joint
stock company of the State Treasury shares) also waits for complete
privatisation.
Public television and radio remain under powerful political control. The National Radio and Television Broadcasting Council, which has controlled the electronic broadcasting sector since April 1993, has broad rights as regarding broadcasting supervision and administration of general viewer licence fees. ęThe National Radio and Television Broadcasting Council has broad powers in monitoring and regulating programming on radio and television, allocating broadcasting frequencies and licences, and apportioning subscription revenues to public media. In order to encourage KRRiT's apolitical character, the nine KRRiT members are obliged legally to suspend any membership in political parties or public associations. However, they are chosen for their political allegiances and nominated by the Sejm, the Senate, and the President following political bargaining, thus raising potentially serious questions about the independence of broadcasting oversight from political influenceł as it is explicitely presented by US State Department (Reports on Human Rights Practices, 1999).
According
to this principle, politically chosen members of the National Council choose
politically convenient members of the supervisory boards of the public
television as well as national and regional companies of the Polish Radio.
Members of the boards, programming directors, etc. are appointed in the same
way. Additionally, the Treasury (as the formal owner of TVP SA company and
public radio companies) joins these ęparty gamesł connected with appointing
the public broadcasting authorities.
Commercial broadcasting stations are also monitored by the National Council. Private broadcasters transmit their programmes on frequencies granted by the Council (in consultation with the Ministry of Telecommunication and Department for the Regulation of Telecommunication (Urzad Regulacji Telekomunikacji), but they are under threat of financial fines or even losing their licences if they do not keep to conditions.
The
foreign capital shares in broadcasting media in Poland cannot exceed the level
of 33% (art. 15 of the Broadcasting Act). This restriction is evaded (by
reference to the European Convention on Transfrontier Television which was
adopted by Poland) owing to the full access to
Polish language satellite channels (e.g. in cable television).
In
Poland there are no limitations as far as establishing and distribution of
private newspapers and magazines are concerned. Direct political influence on
printed press ended in 1991 along with the liquidation (under the parliamentary
act) of RSW Prasa, the communist party press concern. At present, the state
influence on the press is manifested in different forms of subsidies (financial
support, exemption from VAT taxes, etc.) given to some periodicals (e.g.
national minority press, cultural or specialistic magazines). Nevertheless,
there exists a problem of informal influence, which the world of politics has on
the media contents, for example, hidden connections between publishersł
associations (or journalists alone) and the power centres.
The
journalists have many problems with obeying the regulations of the confidential
information protection act (adopted in 1999) and personal data
protection law (1998). These legal
acts seem to be very vague and contradictory to the right advocated by all
political parties in Poland, which concerns the free access to information and
public affairs. Since the beginning of 2000, the Press Freedom Monitoring Center
has been trying to enforce a project aimed at drafting the Freedom of
Information Act. However, such a lucid legal regulation of these matters awaited
by the journalistsł environment still remains in plans.
Due
to heated discussions and objections of political parties towards new bills, the
press law adopted in 1984 (which, despite several amendments, is partly
anachronic and not suitable for a new socio-political situation and media
development) is still in force in Poland.