After weeks of political maneuvering and the constant threat of snap elections, the minority government finally signed a stabilization pact with two fringe parties, the League of Polish Families (LPR) and Self-defense (SO). Instead of bringing peace to the Sejm, PiS unleashed the press-pack hounds by allowing only the ultra-religious media - TV Trwam, Radio Maryja and daily Nasz Dziennik - to witness the signing ceremony consummating the menage-a-trois.
The remaining journalists were invited to a later conference, but boycotted it in protest at the government's door-selection policy. PiS deputy Marek Suski remarked that maybe other broadcasters and journalists didn't deserve an invite, prompting claims that being a part of the political press corps is a lot like Orwell's Animal Farm - all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.
"Preventing public and private mass-media journalists from reporting the signing of the stabilization pact, an event of key importance for Polish society, arouses deep concern and is detrimental to Polish democracy," wrote the editors-in-chief of the largest Polish media houses in a common statement released in the wake of the lockout. Authorities in the Polish Catholic Church, who have struggled for years to control the machinations of Father Rydzyk, also condemned the move.
Stability crisis
According to Miłosz Marczuk, director of the Press Freedom Monitoring Center, the media conduct a regular business activity, and favoring one broadcaster over another is simply breaking the rules of free competition. PiS representatives, however, seemed less concerned and rather surprised by the journalists' indignant reaction. After all, the new government has regularly been featured on Father Rydzyk's Radio Maryja and TV Trwam since the beginning of its term.
"Father director helped to make this agreement easier ... Whenever there is a problem between parties who seek a deal but remain at a distance, someone like [Rydzyk] is needed," commented PiS chief Jarosław Kaczyński. He also has plans to punish the journalists who protested in the Sejm corridors.
The man in black
Father Rydzyk's mini media empire includes Radio Maryja, TV Trwam, the Nasz Dziennik daily and the Higher School of Social Culture and Media where future journalists are trained in an intensely religious environment.
According to Father Rydzyk, his reportedly three-million-strong audience has been "forgotten" by successive Polish governments and is now excluded from social and political life. Indeed, his media are mainly followed by poorer, uneducated and elderly Poles, who feel they have lost out from the tough market reforms following the collapse of communism in 1989. At the same time, they form a radical and disciplined sector of the electorate and are attracted to populist slogans, which many accused PiS of exploiting during the recent electoral campaign.
Radio Maryja openly encouraged its listeners to "sink" Civic Platform, with no little success. Now, Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz's government is showing its appreciation for Father Rydzyk's efforts by choosing to appear in his media excusively. However, analysts see the phenomenon as confined to a single political group and say it is more a temporary blip than a watershed moment in the media environment.
Preaching to the converted
"Neither Radio Maryja nor TV Trwam reaches a very wide audience - their followers are a scant fringe of society. The hype around Father Rydzyk is a storm in a teacup," says Maciej Teliszewski, radio department director in media brokerage CR Media Consulting. "What worries me much more is PiS trying to take control over the state-owned media. By favoring TV Trwam, PiS is showing other media their inferior position."
PiS' attitude towards the media seems very much in line with the party's vision of the state as a strong, controlling entity. It has taken Father Rydzyk's words - "Whoever has the media has the power" - to heart, and one of the first moves of the new government was to amend the media law and appoint a new National Broadcasting Council (KRRiTV). The stabilization pact also includes some rather enigmatic ideas, such as establishing a media monitoring center that will analyze media statements and make ethical and strategic judgments.
"The next step towards control of the public media is the mid-year changes in the composition of the supervisory boards. Unfortunately, the impact of these pending measures is already visible in the way not only TVP but also such quality broadcasters as Trójka cover the government's moves. I can't blame people for wanting to keep their jobs, but it's rather sad that the quality of news suffers," says Teliszewski.
"There seems to be a mental and psychological fit between the ruling coalition [PiS, SO and LPR] and Father Rydzyk's media that can outlast the short-term political implications. Based on the actual ratings and the evolving composition of Polish society, however, the coalition may end up heavily betting on a rather marginal phenomenon in the Polish media scene," says Marek Sowa, president of the Media Association in the Polish Confederation of Private Employers (PKPP) Lewiatan and vice-president of UPC Polska.
"If politicians choose not to understand the nature of free media, it's to their detriment. The fact is, Poland's major media groups are likely to be around long after the names of ad-hoc coalitions and 'pacts' become obscure political history," he adds.
Working nine to five
When PiS introduced its media-law amendments, one of its main goals was to depoliticize the broadcasters and KRRiTV. It reduced the number of people in KRRiTV from nine to five, but analysts say the new composition is far from neutral and its members' competencies are regularly questioned.
Elżbieta Kruk, KRRiTV's new head, is a long-time PiS deputy with no experience in the media, and Tomasz Borysiuk, proposed jointly by SO and LPR, was the only candidate who failed to obtain the recommendation of the Sejm Committee for Culture and Mass Media. Moreover, the opposition underlines that the new way KRRiTV members are appointed effectively hands control of the body over to the Kaczyński brothers, with two members appointed by President Lech Kaczyński, two by the Sejm - controlled by PiS and its leader Jarosław Kaczyński - and one by the Senate.
"The media market was rather indifferent to the recently proposed changes in the media law. No media executive is going to lose any sleep over the changed number of members of the Broadcasting Council, especially as its major prerogatives have been moved to the newly created Office of Electronic Communications (UKE)," says UPC's Marek Sowa. "The two issues that created controversy was the preferential treatment given selectively to Father Rydzyk's media license renewal, and the obscure clause on journalists' ethics. It's arrogant politics at its worst. The real overhaul of the media law is still ahead of us, but the mythical 'political will' seems to be on the wane."
TVP exodus
"The new government hasn't managed to depoliticize the media but what is a really worrying signal is that journalists such as Kamil Durczok are leaving state-owned television to work for private broadcasters," says Wojciech Dziomdziora, a member of KRRiTV.
Kamil Durczok is not the only public TV personality who has left his long-time employer. Jacek Federowicz, creator of a satirical program on Poland's political scene, left TVP after allegedly being asked to remove a song on the Kaczyński brothers from his show, and the show itself was rescheduled away from peak time. At its first meeting, KRRiTV announced plans to carry out a rapid change in the personnel structures of the public media, which would not only be limited to management boards but would also include middle-management.
A new press law, which PiS, SO and LPR promised in the stabilization pact, is still to come. The current law was drafted in communist times and there is a pressing need for its amendment. Wojciech Dziomdziora's plans for this, at least, sound promising: "For me it is unacceptable that a journalist or an editor-in-chief can be charged with criminal offenses for a publication."
On the other hand, the new law will also regulate the process of rectifying errors as, according to PiS representatives, it is currently not applied often enough. It seems PiS is set to be the center of attention for quite some time, and all the media can do is watch this space.
The relationship between the government and the media is at best tempestuous and at worst openly hostile. PiS hurt mainstream journalists' feelings by locking them out of the stabilization pact's signing ceremony, and handing key media positions to its bosom buddies. However, one minor media baron seems to have won the government's heart with his election favors - Father Tadeusz Rydzyk.
Źródło:
