Present-day Poland Media Landscape: Compliance with EU Regulations

Abstract

The article gives an in-depth analysis of the modern Poland government policy in taking on public media and the European Union stance regarding these reforms.
 The author argues that Poland public media have been the subject of political disputes since the 90s of the last century. Noteworthy, in October 2015 the newly elected Polish government, namely, the ruling Law and Justice party (known by its Polish initials as PiS) announced its public media to radically reform. To be more precise, the government aimed at replacing the current public media with a national broadcaster that would promote national interests under closer government control.
 According to PiS elite, Polish public media is presently supervised by the National Media Council, an organization that consists of members elected by the president and the Lower House of the Polish parliament. This means that Poland’s public media is under direct control of the government. The reform of the public media has been part of PiS plans to re-orientate Polish society towards traditional values since the party came back to power. What is more, the heads of the ruling Law and Justice party consider that the present-day public media are the tools of propaganda of the ruling in 2007-2015 and currently the oppositional liberal party – the Civic Platform.
 The researcher notes that the Polish government launched a new parliamentary initiative as a result of legislative changes, and eventually, the government has returned to the state-known media-dependent government-owned model in the past. Furthermore, from the point of view of a democratic state, law and its main provisions, this reform stipulates the authorities and the mass media symbiosis. However, public media should guarantee freedom of speech, information and creative independence and the separation of public media from politics. Remarkably, in a country, where public media used to be a tool of the communist dictatorship until 1989, media and constitutional reforms pose threats to civil liberties.
 According to NGO ‘Freedom House’ research, freedom of the press suffers from oppression by the authorities, the government’s intolerance to independent or unbiased journalism, political influence on the media and restrictions on freedom of expression regarding Polish history and consciousness. Interestingly according to the latest studies done in 2017, Poland public media have become partially free for the first time since 1990.
 To conclude, in December 20, 2017 the European Parliament adopted the resolution, backing the European Commission decision, to initiate the sanctions imposition on Poland over judicial reform. Consequently, the European Commission triggered a procedure against undermining and shrinking of democracy, violation of human rights, freedom of speech, as well as pluralism and the formation of a dependent judicial system in Poland.
 Keywords: Republic of Poland, public media, freedom of the press, EU sanctions