Poland’s struggle for media freedom needs help

While most of Europe was still asleep, viewers of Polish independent television programs, as well as internet surfers on this side of the Atlantic were stunned earlier this month to see their TV screens and web pages suddenly go black, showing only a sombre title: Media without a choice.

This was followed by an open letter representing over 40 commercial television stations, newspapers and magazines, protesting the new regulation proposed by the Polish government, forcing independent media to pay extra taxes on advertisements on top of what they already pay. Although this was officially presented as a necessary contribution in times of fighting the pandemic, it was clear to everyone that the real aim was to put media not controlled by the government financially out of business, only to be taken over by government owned enterprises.

This would be the end of free media in Poland. The “blackout,” which lasted 24 hours was indeed, a shocking way of showing what it would look like without access to free media. To many it brought painful memories of that Sunday morning, Dec. 13, 1981, when martial law was imposed in then Communist-run Poland. On that day thousands of Solidarity activists, including Lech Wałesa, were arrested, but one member slept in until noon and wasn’t arrested along with the others, which he regrets today. That was Jarosław Kaczynski, the now leader of the ruling Law and Justice party, seen by many as the de facto single ruler of Poland. It is well known that nothing in the party happens without his consent.

The resilience, resolve and determination of the Solidarity movement in the ’80s forced the bankrupt Communist government to allow semifree elections in June 1989 which were overwhelmingly won by those in favour of freedom and a first non-Communist government was formed. In a domino effect, within months, other Soviet-dominated governments in Europe, inspired by the Polish example toppled, the Berlin Wall crumbled, and the Communist empire came to an end. A new era dawned.

Kaczynski has for many years shown fascination with how Victor Orban has suppressed the opposition in Hungary and has said that “we will have Budapest in Warsaw.” After reforming the justice system to be practically subordinated to the government’s whims, the ruling party still has to contend with a problem — the existence of free media which it cannot openly delegalize because Poland is still a member of the European Union and has to appear democratic. That is why the Law and Justice party devised a plan to financially destroy the media it hates. Free media is still the lifebuoy of millions of people in Poland who do not agree with what this government does. Without free media, Poles would never know about many scandals within the ruling party and government but, at the same time, if anything is done right, free media would acknowledge it. However, the independent TVN television does not reach everywhere and many people, especially in rural areas can only watch the state-run TVP television. This station, officially “public” has been turned into propaganda tool singing praises of everything the government does and spreading ridicule and contempt of the opposition.

Polish President Andrzej Duda has stated in an interview that Poland of today has greater freedom of the press and media than in 2015 when the present opposition was in power. According to the Reporters Without Borders organization, Poland’s ranking was 18th in the world in 2015 and dropped to 62 in 2020. This body ranks countries according to independence and pluralism of media, legal conditions, transparency of institutions and procedures, quality of infrastructure, safety of journalists, as well as level of abuse and violence.

We, living in Canada, take freedom of the press for granted. In the United States, if not for the freedom of the press, the Watergate scandal might not have been exposed by Washington Post. Furthermore, the United States survived the Donald Trump era because of freedom of the press and free media, which he called liars but did not dare to harm. Many Poles sighed with relief when Joe Biden won the election because they still see America as the pillar of democracy. Canada is also looked upon as a stable and decent democratic country. Polish people need a show of strong support from us living here and our governments in their struggle to return to full freedom and true democracy. The majority living in Poland do not want to return to times when their only source of true news was Radio Free Europe.