European Parliament’s committee has assessed media freedom in Poland “Alarming visit”
The European Parliament’s committee, which works on an EU law protecting the media, uses the situation in Poland to indicate solutions that need to be prevented. This is a sad conclusion after a visit by members of the committee, who came to Poland and met, among others, the chairman of the National Broadcasting Council. The head of the EP committee warns that if free media is threatened, democracy is at risk.
CULT is an abbreviation for the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education. Its delegation visited Poland to witness the situation regarding freedom of speech, academic freedom, and freedom of artistic expression. The conclusions are disheartening. Unfortunately, we have become aware of certain events that are incompatible with our understanding of democracy and the basic European values, said Sabine Verheyen, the chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education, at a press conference.
CULT is the main venue for work on the Media Freedom Act, which is a set of EU regulations aimed at better-protecting freedom of expression and media independence in the future. For this reason, the members of the delegation, including MEPs from several parties, met the chairman of the National Broadcasting Council. It was a very interesting but also alarming visit. The National Broadcasting Council understands its tasks in such a way that it is, in fact, an extension of the ruling party’s activities and does not even try to hide it, added the CULT chair.
The MEPs pointed out that KRRiT only notices the problem with pluralism in the private media, never in the public ones. The media act as gatekeepers, and presenting independent media as the opposition doesn’t serve democracy in any way, Sabine Verheyen said.
Threat to democracy
During the press conference in Warsaw, the head of the committee also highlighted the government’s full control over public media, the granting of ads and subsidies to public media that support the government, problems with access to public information, and the use of the so-called SLAPP practice, which includes abusing the judicial route against journalists. We believe that freedom and pluralism of the media are under threat in Poland by the Polish government. Consequently, Polish democracy is also at risk, as the media are an important element of a well-functioning democracy, Sabine Verheyen added.
The Media Freedom Act aims to protect journalists and freedom of expression in all European Union states. It also aims to ensure transparency in granting licenses and spending public money on advertising. Governments will have to provide mandatory information on how they spend advertising money, where that money goes, why it goes, for example, to state media rather than private ones, or why some private media are left out, explained Jaume Duch Guillot, the communications director for the European Parliament, during an interview on TVN24 BiS.
Minister Przemysław Czarnek criticized
The CULT members also examined artistic freedom and academic freedom. Academic freedom, artistic freedom, and media freedom are under attack by the Polish government, sometimes subtly and sometimes more openly, stated Sabine Verheyen.
According to the CULT, an example of inappropriate actions is the attitude of Minister Czarnek, who threatened to cut off funding for Prof. Barbara Engelking’s Holocaust research. The Polish government’s decision has shocked the academic community in Poland and sets a cruel precedent, added Sabine Verheyen. According to the minister, the research does damage to Poland. The MEPs believe that cutting funds for projects that do not align with the government’s stance is a path to academic self-censorship.