Czech demos stir Poland to pursue media law amendment
By : Anna KociNska
Center-right politicians looking to weaken partisanship in Poland's public media had a confidence boost last week after Czech TV journalists called for the removal of the politically connected head of Czech public broadcaster CŠT.
Taking his cue from Prague, Sejm Speaker Maciej Plazynski proposed a media law amendment that would change the rules on how media company board members are appointed so that new personnel can only be designated by non-political bodies.
Under the current law, supervisory board members of public broadcasters Telewizja Polska (TVP) and Polskie Radio (PR) are appointed by the National Radio and Television Council (KRRiTV), the media watchdog. Among the KRRiTV's aims is to protect public media from political influence. However, Parliament, the Senate and the president elect the council's nine members, and most current members are affiliated with the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and the Polish Peasants Party (PSL).
According to Tomasz Welnicki, AWS deputy head of the media and culture parliamentary committee, the protests in the Czech Republic have revived a long running debate about Poland's media industry.
"Plazynski suggested that members of public media supervisory boards should be designated by associations of artists and unions of journalists, and not by political bodies," Welnicki said. "In addition, it's likely that together with our Czech counterparts we will ask the European Commission to assess (during the EU enlargment negotiation process) the level of independence in public media of candidate countries. It's just an idea, but a good one."
According to Welnicki, public media is being manipulated for the sake of politics. TVP President Robert Kwiatkowski was the manager of President Aleksander Kwasniewski's election campaign in 1995, and last year he was accused of using TVP's programming to promote Kwasniewski's re-election campaign.
To change the status quo in public media, at least 15 parliamentary deputies will have to come up with a legislative initiative. "It's no problem," Welnicki said. "It should be ready in two to three weeks. What we need is political support. The Freedom Union (the ruling government's former coalition partner) seems to be interested."
Last week, thousands of Czechs gathered in central Prague to support independent journalists. Jaroslaw Sellin, a KRRiTV member affiliated with the right, said the same spontaneous demonstration of support for independent media wouldn't be possible in Poland.
"In the Czech Republic, the inspiration came from journalists," Sellin said. "People who watch TV noticed that and expressed their support. In Poland, you can't expect such inspiration from TVP or PR because many journalists who work for them simply agree to the one-party rule in public media."
But according to Welnicki, now is the last chance to break the grip of political influence on public media, with or without popular support.
"If we gain AWS' (Solidarity Election Action) and UW's support and win support from people in the art world such as (Film director Andrzej) Wajda or (Film director Krzysztof) Zanussi, there is a chance that President Kwasniewski will not veto the amendment," Welnicki said.
Sellin was less optimistic about the outcome of the media amendment proposal.
"Honestly, nothing can be done because until 2005 Aleksander Kwasniewski (SLD) is Poland's president," he said. "Any change in the law that could weaken the position of his political grouping in the public media will be vetoed. Even if Plazynski's concept is accepted by the Sejm and the Senate, Kwasniewski will veto it."
Meanwhile, SLD's deputies view rightist parliamentarians' initiative with skepticism. "There is still nothing to comment on," said Lech Nikolski, SLD's member of the media parliamentary committee. "I am waiting for something more solid than general announcements. So far, all proposals to amend the media law failed because they led to AWS taking over public media. There is no reason why it should work differently this time."
