Bill to restrict sex and violence in the media comes before Sejm today

The Sejm will today consider the draft of a bill restricting the depiction of sex and violence in the media. The debate represents a triumph by the two Przemysl women, Elzbieta Blonska-Grzesiak and Lucyna Podhalicz, who launched the initiative. During a three-month period they succeeded in gathering 160,000 signatures supporting their opposition to violence in the media. "We thought it was time to react to what the media are doing to our children," said Blonska-Grzesiak. The proposal, which they had to draft themselves since they could not afford to hire a lawyer, calls for all TV and radio stations to be prohibited from broadcasting any programs containing scenes deemed violent or obscene between six in the morning and ten at night. Also banned would be computer games and other software, as well as commercials, directed at children and young people, which contain violent or sexually explicit material. Anyone found guilty of violating the law would face up to a year in prison. However, the current parliament is not expected to have sufficient time to complete its review of the draft. As a result, deliberation will have to be carried over to the next parliament. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A3) P.W.