Poland

Re-Nationalization And Takeover Of The News Services

Warsaw, Poland, 18February,2006 - The leader of the ruling Polish political party Law and Justice (PIS) Jaroslaw Kaczynski said in an interview with a reporter from the newspaper Rzeczpospolita. "The fact that most of the media in Poland is in foreign hands says much about our national potential."

And how would he like to improve the national potential? He supports the proposal by The Leader of League of Polish Families, Roman Giertych who wants to "Polonize" the Polish news by buying back stakes in news services that have been sold to investors. That would include buying back the stake in Rzeczpospolita that is currently owned by a Norwegian investor.

An earlier report caused a stir when word was leaked about a secret meeting at which Giertych was said to have demanded that his party be allowed by Kacynski to take over management positions in the Polish Press Agency, from top to bottom. He vociferously denied that such a meeting never took place and that publishing information about such a meeting was a "provocation."

When factoring in statements by PIS members that they should even consider the communist vetting procedures for private journalists, the pattern of an assault on a free press and total control of information flow is becoming more and more a fact than a possibility.

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