Poland
Will The Polish Media Bite The Hand That Is Harassing It?
Warsaw, Poland 12 March, 2006 - The Polish Government of the Kaczynski Brothers continues its assault on the media. It is behind the establishment of a Polish Parliamentary Committee that will investigate the media's activities for the past 16 years.
In the lead up to formation of this committee there seems to be some bite back.
It was little known that during Lech Kaczynski's tenure as Minister of Justice he put pressure on the newspaper Rzespospolita after he learned that an article would be published that was not complimentary of Kaczynski. He went to the extreme of appointing a special prosecutorial team that is normally used for the worst of murder cases. That he did this was not widely publicized.
As he mounts his attack against the press, however, the press is starting to react. Now that his Political party PIS wants to form a Parliamentary Committee to investigate the media the incident is being reported in the press and on television. People now know that investigation of and pressing the media for political purposes is nothing new to the Kaczynskis.
Past Parliamentary Committees in Poland have been political and media circuses. As one current government opposition party member said, politically appointed committees do not chase the thieves but only try to destroy the political opposition. In this case the political opposition is any member of the press that is critical of Kaczynski.
As the committee meets the media will be reporting on the investigation of the media. It would seem that if the media is critical of the committee members that the committee might find cause to investigate the errant journalist or publication. Or the committee could be used to control current, rather than past, reporting of government activities by investigating that reporting.
No matter how one looks at it, there are many questions that will only be able to be answered once the committee is formed and gets down to business. But when it does, the media will be at a decision point.
No one is likely to take this attack lightly. The very existence of a free media is at stake here. And a lot of money is involved. The issue is a lot bigger than Kaczynski or Poland. It will get the attention of the EU and international media outside Poland's control. It will be a lot more than Kaczynski against some journalist. It will be Kaczynski against the world of journalists and business interests.
The Kaczynskis, like all politicians, are passing fads. They are office temporaries that are now enjoying their fifteen minutes in the sun. Someday they will once again revert to commonality and some subsequent government might someday be pressing to prosecute them for abuses. And the press surely knows this.
So will the press sit back and be cowed by people who are just high powered office temporaries or will they unleash the full power of investigative reporting and dissemination of information against the Kaczynski attack?
In short will the press bite back?
Stay tuned for a government cowed media or some biting reports.
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