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POLAND
The Constitution provides for freedom of speech and the
press, and the Government generally respects this right;
however, there are some marginal restrictions in law and
practice. Nonetheless, the press is vigorous and
independent.
The new
Criminal Code states that an individual who
“publicly insults or humiliates a constitutional
institution of the Republic of Poland” is subject to
a fine or imprisonment of up to 2 years, while an
individual who insults a public functionary is subject to
a fine or imprisonment of up to 1 year. In
September 1997, President Kwasniewski filed a private
lawsuit against the Zycie and Dziennik Baltycki
newspapers, which had accused him of contacts with
Russian spy Vladimir Alganov during his 1994
vacations. Although Kwasniewski withdrew the suit
against Dziennik Baltycki when its editor in chief
retracted the newspaper’s charges, the court
proceedings in the case against Zycie are ongoing.
Kwasniewski claimed that Zycie’s articles violated
his good name and demanded that the newspaper apologize
to him and pay approximately $76,000 (2.5 million PLN),
which he intended to use for flood victims. Zycie
denied that the law was violated and maintained that its
journalists acted in the public interest.
This provision
of the Criminal Code also can be used by individual
citizens and businesses “to protect their good
name.” In March Network Twenty One, which
sells Amway products, and seven of its employees used the
provision to prevent the broadcast, showing, or copying
of a 1-hour documentary critical of the company and its
practices. The documentary originally was shown at
a film festival in December 1997, winning the
festival’s highest award for a documentary.
When Public Television Channel One announced plans to
broadcast the film, Network Twenty One took the matter to
court and won a temporary restraining order. On
March 25, the leading daily newspapers carried an open
letter to the President and Parliament signed by 48 of
the country’s most noted journalists, which
condemned the court’s decision. A popular
biweekly television public affairs program criticized the
court’s temporary injunction as a form of
censorship. The court subsequently made its
injunction permanent and prohibited distribution of the
program.
The case
against talk show host Wojciech Cejrowski, charged with
publicly insulting President Kwasniewski, was postponed
several times and was still pending at year’s
end. Also pending was a 1995 case against
presidential candidate Leszek Bubel for violating a
section of the Penal Code which prohibits acts that
“publicly insult, ridicule, and deride the Polish
nation, the Polish Republic, its political system, or its
principal organs.” Bubel had claimed publicly
that a former head of the presidential Chancellery
protected a group of criminals.
In February
the Torun regional prosecutor officially dropped pending
charges against controversial Catholic radio priest
Father Tadeusz Rydzyk. The prosecutor’s office
had been carrying out an investigation of Rydzyk at the
request of a group of Parliamentarians who voted for the
liberalization of the abortion law. The
Parliamentarians were offended when they were compared on
the air to criminals who collaborated with the Nazis
during World War II.
The
investigation continues in the case of Mikolaj Siwicki, a
Warsaw pensioner. In 1996 the Warsaw
prosecutor’s office brought charges against Siwicki
for publication of a hate-mongering book, which, the
prosecutor charged, “could seriously damage the
interests of the Polish Republic in international
affairs.” The book allegedly condones crimes
committed by Poles during World War II, makes
historically dubious claims about Polish crimes against
the Ukrainian nation, and calls for lands in southeastern
Poland to be given to Ukraine.
The new
Criminal Code also stipulates that offending religious
sentiment through public speech is punishable by a fine
or a 3-year prison term. In 1995 a provincial court
charged presidential candidate Leszek Bubel with
violating this article by publishing a pamphlet
containing anti-Semitic “humor.” A
verdict still is pending. Catholic organizations
also have used the provision. In December 1997
Tadeusz Rydzyk and All-Polish Youth director Roman
Giertych, both acting on behalf of the Council for the
Coordination of the Defense of the Dignity of Poland and
Poles, filed charges against the leftist daily Trybuna
for insulting the Pope in one of its articles.
Rydzyk and Giertych were offended particularly by the
characterization of the Pope as a “boorish
vicar,” by the reference to one of his statements as
“dirty and mumbling,” and by the suggestion
that he used his position to make slanderous
statements. According to one press report, the
newspaper’s editor in chief apologized for the
article twice. In April the Warsaw
prosecutor’s office decided to drop the case.
The State
Secrets Act allows for the prosecution of citizens who
publish or otherwise betray state secrets. Human
rights groups criticize this law, since it restricts the
right of free speech of private citizens.
The new Criminal Code regulates the protection of
journalistic sources. The code grants news sources
absolute protection, except in cases involving national
security, murder, and terrorist acts. Pursuant to
the law, statutory provisions are applied retroactively
if their terms are beneficial to the accused.
Journalists who refused to divulge sources prior to the
new code’s enactment can avoid sanctions by invoking
“journalistic privilege” after the new
code’s entry into force.
There is no
restriction on the establishment of private newspapers or
distribution of journals; private newspapers and
magazines flourish. While RUCH, a national network
of newspaper kiosks, still remains in state hands, the
Government has not used its control over distribution to
suppress any publications. Progress on government
plans to privatize the company in 1996 slowed when the
bidding process was reopened after having reached near
completion. In March a Warsaw court dismissed a
civil suit initiated in 1997 by the original winner of
the bidding process. An appellate court later
upheld the provincial court’s decision.
The National
Radio and Television Broadcasting Council (KRRiTV) has
broad interpretive powers in monitoring and regulating
programming on public radio and television, allocating
broadcasting frequencies and licenses, and apportioning
subscription revenues. In order to encourage the
KRRiTV’S apolitical character, the nine KRRiTV
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 serious
questions about the independence of broadcasting
oversight from political (although not necessarily
government) influence.
The
broadcasting law stipulates that programs should not
promote activities that are illegal or against state
policy, morality, or the common good. The law also
requires that all broadcasts “respect the religious
feelings of the audiences and in particular respect the
Christian system of values.” However, the law
does not fully define the term “Christian
values.” The Constitutional Tribunal has
confirmed the constitutionality of this provision.
This provision was not used as a means of censorship
during the year. However, since the KRRiTV has the
ultimate responsibility for supervising the content of
programs, these restrictions theoretically could be
used. The penalty for violating this provision of
the law is a fine of up to 50 percent of the annual fee
for the transmission frequency or suspension of the
broadcaster’s license.
Private
television broadcasters operate on frequencies selected
by the Ministry of Communications and auctioned by the
KRRiTV. The first auction in 1994 gave Polsat
Corporation and some smaller local and religious stations
licenses to broadcast, while additional licenses were
granted to TVN and Nasza Telewizja last year.
Private radio flourishes on the local, regional, and
national levels alongside public radio.
The Government
owns the 2 of the 3 most widely viewed television
channels and 17 regional stations, as well as 5 national
radio networks. PAP, the national wire service, was
privatized partially in December 1997. Former
Reuters journalist Robert Bogdanski heads a five-member
supervisory board that is preparing the service for full
privatization. Although public television remains
the major source of news and information, satellite
television and private cable services (domestic and
foreign) are widely available. Cable services carry
the main public channels, Polsat, local and regional
stations, and a variety of foreign stations.
The law on
radio and television requires public television to
provide direct media access to the main state
institutions, including the presidency, “to make
presentations or explanations of public
policy.” The Government sometimes complains of
a lack of attention to its point of view, but there is a
history of charge and counter-charge. In September,
for example, AWS accused public television of
manipulating information about its election campaign and
criticized the Channel One nightly news for its dishonest
reporting on an AWS convention. Program chief Jacek
Maziarski responded that the accusations were groundless,
describing them as yet another element of the AWS
election campaign. Both public and private radio
and television provide coverage of all ranges of
political opinion. Evidence of overt political
tampering in public broadcasting remains scarce, and
watchdog organizations are alert to expose quickly any
such tampering.
Books
expressing a wide range of political and social
viewpoints are widely available, as are foreign
periodicals and other publications from abroad.
In 1997
complaints were filed with both the Warsaw and the Krakow
prosecutor’s offices in connection with a billboard
advertising the American film “The People vs.
Larry Flynt.” The complaints argued that the
billboards offended religious sentiment. The
advertisement pictured a drawing of a man, his arms and
legs outstretched in a crucifixion position, superimposed
on a larger drawing of a woman’s lower half.
The Krakow prosecutor (the only prosecutor to have
pursued an investigation) dropped the case in
August. In September Krakow Cardinal Franciszek
Micharski announced that he would appeal the
prosecutor’s decision.
Academic
freedom is respected.
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