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POLAND
I. Calls for
Polish TV apology to minister.
The government
spokesman, Jaroslaw Sellin, expects that the editors of
the “In the Centre of Attention” programme will
apologize to Deputy Minister [of Internal Affairs and
Administration] Jerzy Stepien for the fact that he was
not allowed to participate in the programme with
[opposition Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) leader] Leszek
Miller [on 5th January].
“If this
apology is not forthcoming, I will have to ask government
ministers not to appear in this programme, in the name of
professional solidarity with their colleague, until
Minister Stepien receives an apology,” Sellin told
PAP.
The director of
the Television Information Agency [TAI], Jacek
Snopkiewicz, did not wish to reply to a question from a
PAP journalist on whether the editors should apologize to
Minister Stepien. He explained that he would only
adopt an official stance on this matter in the afternoon.
PAP news agency,
Warsaw, January 7, 1999
II.
Opposition says government trying to control media.
The [opposition]
Democratic Left Alliance [SLD] criticizes “the
decisions and initiatives which unambiguously show that
the government of the Polish Republic and the [ruling]
AWS [Solidarity Electoral Action] aim to take control of
the public media and are breaking the principle of media
independence.”
“Almost
every day brings events which show that the AWS is
persistently striving to take control of the public
media,” SLD spokesman Andrzej Urbanczyk told
journalists at the Sejm [lower house of parliament] on
[6th January]. . . .
“The actions
of the treasury minister are harming radio and
TV. In the era of rivalry between public and
commercial TV, between Polish and foreign media, it is
plain that this action benefits the competition,”
Urbanczyk said.
“We get the
impression that the AWS regards the public media as the
property of the parliamentary majority,” he
stressed. In the SLD’s opinion, “those
who initiate and conduct a campaign against the public
media want in fact to take them over. They want to
turn a tool of civic supervision of the public
authorities and of an exchange of opinions into an
instrument of the government propaganda of success,”
the SLD spokesman thinks.
PAP news agency,
Warsaw, January 6, 1999
III. Poll
results on impartiality of Polish TV.
Political parties
are doing all they can to have an influence on public
television [Polish TV, (TVP)]. Nearly 60 per cent
of respondents in a poll commissioned by [independent
newspaper] ‘Rzeczpospolita’ have no doubt about
that.
According to most
Poles, Polish Television [TVP] (channel one, channel two
and regional channels) thoroughly and impartially reports
on developments in Poland and abroad. Reports on
domestic affairs are seen to be unbiased by 17 per cent
of those polled, whereas 50 per cent claim they are
“rather” objective. We assess the
reliability of reporting on international developments
slightly more positively: 21 per cent claim they
are “definitely” trustworthy, 53 per cent say
they are “rather” trustworthy.
Not many people
believe politicians who claim they want public television
[TVP] to remain public. Only 21 per cent of those
polled believe political parties want the network to
remain impartial and independent. As many as 58 per
cent of Poles claim political parties want to influence
TVP. According to 44 per cent of those polled,
politicians from all parties want this, regardless of
what part of the political scene they represent.
Almost 12 per cent attribute such aspirations exclusively
to right-wing parties and 7 per cent—exclusively to
left-wing parties.
The poll was
carried out by the Public Opinion Research Centre [CBOS]
on 26th-30th November 1998, with the help of a random
representative sampling group of Poland’s adult
population.
‘Rzeczpospolita,’
Warsaw, January 6, 1999
IV.
President criticizes “Bolshevik” radio/TV
changes.
Changes in public
TV and radio should take place according to the law and
not by way of revolution and “Bolshevik
methods,” President Aleksander Kwasniewski thinks.
In .
. . “Breakfast with Radio Zet” [on
3rd January], the president stressed that the procedures
laid down in legislation defining the role of the
National Radio and TV Broadcasting Council [KRRiTV],
Polish Television [TVP] and Polish Radio [PR] management
boards must be respected. “If
corrections are needed inside these bodies, then let them
be made, but not by a revolutionary methods, not by a
Bolshevik method, but in accordance with the law,”
the president said.
“I hear that
people want to use drastic methods to make personnel
changes; I hear about proposals to put firms like
television or radio into liquidation in order to make
personnel changes. That is the wrong way, which
will also spoil Poland’s image in the world,”
he argued.
Commenting on
proposals for politically balanced TVP and radio
management boards, Kwasniewski said the TV management
board should not be its politburo.
PAP news agency,
Warsaw, January 3, 1999
V. Ruling
party deputy accuses public TV chiefs of sharp practice.
[Interviewer
Krzysztof Skowronski] Radio Zet’s guest [on 30th
December] is Mr Jan Maria Jackowski, chairman of the Sejm
[lower house of parliament] Culture [and Mass Media]
Committee and an AWS [ruling Solidarity Electoral Action]
deputy. Good morning.
[Jackowski]
Good
morning . . . .
[Q]
What
will happen next with public television?
[A]
I hope
that it will finally—and soon—really be public
television, that is to say that it will carry out the
mission of public television and there will be no more of
the discussions that are going on at the moment, and
there will not be the situation where we are dealing with
a politicized supervisory council, with a politicized
management board [words indistinct as interviewer
interrupts].
[Q]
And will
a liquidator like the AWS be able to cope with the
situation [words indistinct as Jackowski interrupts].
[A]
Sometimes,
when I observe the actions of those who are managing the
public media at the moment, I get the impression that we
are dealing with provocation for provocation’s
sake. Indeed, putting the media institutions into
liquidation is a last resort in my opinion, and if the
people who have influence in television at the moment are
wise, and if there is the understanding that television
cannot be appropriated for some kind of political or
economic aims, but that it has to fulfil its mission,
then I think that the problem can be solved in a normal
way, by sitting down at the table, talking, deciding
[interrupted]
[Q]
Appropriated
for economic aims, that’s a new opinion; nobody has
ever said that in this studio.
[A]
I think
we are dealing with cases where people in TV management
are also engaged in production activity, for example, and
it is an advantage to them that they are at the same time
public TV management employees—so that is what I
call economic appropriation. . . .
[In the last few
months, the management of Polish public TV (TVP) has been
accused of plotting the network’s
privatization. For instance, on 13th October, the
Polish news agency PAP reported a document leaked to the
Warsaw daily ‘Zycie’. The document, which
had been drawn up by the TVP management board, gave heads
of programmes the freedom to choose between TVP employees
and independent production firms. The agency said
TVP’s staff regarded the move as “silent
privatization” and “as an end to TVP’s
public mission.”]
Radio Zet, Warsaw,
December 30, 1998
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