Who will regulate the regulator?
The original version of the draft bill of amendments to the Broadcasting Act 1992, currently winding its way through the Sejm was drawn up by the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiTV). The bill contains measures to limit cross-ownership of media outlets and to restrict broadcasters to ownership of a single TV or national radio channel. Owners of national newspapers will be barred from acquiring TV or radio channels. Simultaneously, the draft law proposes to strengthen the position of the national public broadcaster TVP, which would be able to increase its share of commercials and subscriptions.
Many critics of the bill argue that it is aimed specifically at Agora, which owns the best-selling daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and 19 local radio stations. They are thought to be interested in a takeover of the national private television channel Polsat. When speaking on public television in March, Lech Nikolski, Prime Minister Leszek Miller's Chief of Staff, said that as Gazeta Wyborcza opposed the SLD during the 2001 election and printed a "Stop the SLD" headline during the campaign, the "SLD will stop Agora."
On hearing of the intentions of the bill, Ernest Skalski, a columnist at Gazeta Wyborcza, expressed the view of many in the private sector of the media when he said that the council should be liquidated.
"Any attempts at putting limitations on journalism, such as licencing, violate the freedom of the media," he said.
The bill was handed over to the Sejm, via the Ministry of Culture, and work began on it in April. President Aleksander Kwaniewski joined the crowded ranks of critics of the bill assuring that he would not sign it until changes were made. A source close to the Sejm Committee on Culture and the Media told the Business Journal that, "There is still considerable restrictions on cross-ownership, but the final form of the bill that will be presented to Parliament is still uncertain. Things are changing everyday."
The original Broadcasting Act 1992 established formally the independence of public broadcasting and the principle of regulation through the KRRiTV. This body grants broadcasting licences and frequencies, appoints members of the supervisory boards, and may order suspension of programs violating the law. The nine members of the board are appointed by the Sejm, the Senate and the president. Their terms are for six years.
The suspicion has always been that the political independence of the council cannot, therefore, be assured. In 1998, the United Nations Special Report on Human Rights in Poland concluded that, "the government should take all necessary steps to ensure the independence of the council, including measures to ensure that appointments to the KRRiTV are made in such a way that its independence is assured." In 1999, the US Department of State Human Rights Report on Poland voiced its concern that due to the board members' previous political allegiances, there were "potentially serious questions about the independence of broadcasting oversight from political influence."
Karol Jakubowicz is the chairman of the Standing Committee on Transfrontier Television at the Council of Europe. He was also an adviser to the KRRiTV when it was formulating its proposed amendments to the Broadcasting Act. He dismisses critics who say that the council lacks freedom from political pressure. "Independence is not a problem," he said. "Nobody can tell the KRRiTV what to do. In fact, the KRRiTV is more independent than many media regulators in western Europe."
Though the members are appointed by politicians, often on a party political basis, Jakubowicz said this is unavoidable in Poland at the moment.
"We lack strong civil institutions," he said. "Therefore, everything is politicised. As a consequence, political culture is orientated towards party politics. But the system is respectable."
Many politicians, however, have been calling for a de-politicisation of the council. The previous AWS-led administration believed that the KRRiTV was making decisions that were to the benefit of ex-communist President Aleksander Kwaniewski, and against that government. In January 2001, the then Speaker of the Sejm, Maciej Płażyński, announced a plan to add nominations from journalists and a range of broadcasters to the council, broadening its representation. Since the SLD-led coalition came to power later that year, however, no such plans have emerged.
David Dadge, the editor of Press Freedom News, the mouthpiece of the International Press Institute, has just returned from a tour of the eastern-central European region. He feels that press and broadcasting freedom is being seriously compromised by regulatory bodies that are appointed by party political criteria.
"Countries such as Poland seem to be totally resistant to bringing their institutions into the 21st century," he said. "What is more surprising is that the European Union is silent on the matter."
The EU leaves the manner of selecting members to be appointed to regulatory bodies, such as the KRRiTV, to the individual countries themselves. Each member state as a consequence has its own arrangement. But the Council of Europe, in its Report of the Committee of Ministers on Independence of Regulatory Authorities for Broadcasting says that member states should draw up guidelines in respect to regulatory authorities, which "ensure the effective respect of the independence of the regulatory authorities." Considering the volume and range of criticisms aimed at the KRRiTV, it is just this respect for its activities among private broadcasters and publishers that appears to be missing.
