Halfway there
Sometimes it is difficult to fully appreciate how far Poland has come in the last decade, both economically and politically. For example, last week BBC program "Hard Talk" aired an interview with Caroline Cox, a British human rights advocate, who recounted her days delivering medical supplies to Poland during martial law. To illustrate how much Poland has changed, Cox told a story of one journey across the border. She said that after exiting the checkpoint, the driver of the medical truck was furious to discover that two boxes of blank paper had been sitting in the front seat. Cox asked why he was so upset. He responded, didn't she understand that they could have been arrested? Blank paper, after all, could be used to disseminate inflamatory, oppositionist material.
While much has changed in Poland, we at the WBJ are saddened to realize that this country which is now a relatively well-established democracy hasn't totally escaped the legacy of its communist past. Blank paper, and what can be printed on it, is just as dangerous to the state as ever. We are specifically talking about this country's arcane practices regarding the press. In our interview this week (See page 8), the WBJ talks to Andrzej Goszczynski, director of the independently funded Press Freedom Monitoring Center (CMWP). The center's main goal is to promote freedom of the press by providing newspapers the necessary resources to fight lawsuits and battle restrictive court decisions.
But Goszczynski gets little moral support from any government body. He said that when his organization asks the Justice Ministry, for example, to detail what kinds and number of libel lawsuits have been filed to date in Poland, the ministry refuses. When he asks the courts to provide records on cases filed against newspapers, he is turned away. In short, many ministries have no legal responsibility to answer his questions so they simply put a stop to the center's research work. There are two sides to a free and independent press: the first is the right to print on blank paper. In other words, the right to print information in a responsible manner without fear of reprisal. The second side, however, is the ability to obtain information of relevance to the public from government ministries, authorities or the court system. This is called the free flow of information, and Poland is sorely lacking on this front. One clear example is the Social Insurance Office (ZUS). As a public body, ZUS is not allowed to sign secret contracts. But when Goszczynski asked ZUS to disclose the details of a controversial contract they signed with IT company Prokom, ZUS said it was none of his business.
For Poland to erase the last traces of communism as far as the press is concerned, it must do at least three things: abolish the antiquated practice of authorizing stories; open court-case files to the public and enact a freedom of information act that requires public bodies to disclose pertinent information to the press or anybody else who inquires. Doing that will ensure that Poland has finally gotten past the days when blank paper was a threat.
