Poland lower and lower in World Press Freedom Index
23:48
Poland took 64th place in this year's 19th edition of the World Press Freedom Index. This is the lowest position of our country in the history of the ranking. Poland's 64th position means that Poland fell by another two places compared to the previous year. The highest so far, 18th place, our country took in 2015. Since then, Poland has been lower in the ranking every year.
“After taking power over the public media, the government is trying to push through the repolonization of private media. The aim is to influence their publishing policy, that is – in other words – censorship ” the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) explained in justifying Poland's position in the index.
The organization pays attention to, among others for last year's campaign before the presidential election, when "the public media supported Andrzej Duda, who was seeking re-election, and did everything to discredit his main rival (candidate of the Civic Coalition, President of Warsaw Rafał Trzaskowski – ed.)".
Other matters mentioned by the RSF were the controversial plans for the oil company PKN Orlen to take over the Polska Press publishing house, which was suspended by the District Court in Warsaw. The organization emphasizes that Orlen was to take over 20 out of 24 local titles belonging to the Polish-German publishing house, which newspapers have a total of about 17 million readers.
According to Reporters Without Borders, the police also failed to fulfill their role in protecting journalists covering the protests.
The Nordic countries were at the forefront of the index, as in previous years. The first two positions were taken by Norway and Finland once again. Compared to last year, Sweden and Denmark moved to third and fourth places, in favor of the first of these countries.
Costa Rica came in 5th, up to two positions compared to last year. The Netherlands fell one place to sixth. Jamaica, New Zealand, Portugal, and Switzerland complete the top ten in the ranking.
