The Polish Journalists Association (SDP) wishes to express its deep disappointment and disapproval of the appeal and actions undertaken by Reporters Without Borders (RWB) – with the support of some Polish non-governmental organizations – aimed at stigmatizing Poland, as a country in exceptionally serious breach of freedom of speech standards. Calls to the international community aimed at initiating a drastic response to these alleged violations, including the imposition of sanctions – that would inevitably be harmful to Polish society as a whole – would inevitably lead to the depreciation of our country on the international arena.
Without denying that the issues of media regulation’s quality in Poland leave much to be desired, we wish to draw your attention to the blatant application of double standards by our fellow media colleagues at RWB. It should be noted that the organization did not raise similar protests – indeed remained silent – when public media organisations dismissed over 400 employees, many for political reasons, during the tenure of the previous PO-PSL government. Actions, that presently thankfully belong to the past, but were equally worthy of condemnation, and also did not attract any interest or response from the RWB, include brutal and extralegal pressure exerted on private publishers, raids by special forces on editorial offices, pressing for the removal of ‘uncomfortable’ editors of private newspapers, or interventions via private equity owners.
The opposition expressed by RWB to the introduction in Poland of regulations preventing excessive concentrations of capital in the media, cannot be regarded otherwise than as an act of hypocrisy, all the more so when such regulations are presently enforced in Germany (at the federal level) and France.
Under the circumstances the SDP is regretfully forced to conclude, that this kind of action – the condemnation and stigmatization of Poland as a non-democratic country, comparing it to countries where journalists are murdered or imprisoned, equates to a deliberate, politically motivated, manipulation of the facts.
The Board of the Polish Journalists Association
