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Week of July 2, 2018

Prosecutor snubs complaints of denied press access
"exceptional situations"

Complaints from reporters in Poland about access denied fell on deaf ears at the Warsaw District Prosecutors Office this week. In May the speaker of the lower house of parliament (Sejm) Marek Kuchcinski restricted admission to reporters during a protest by parents of persons with disabilities. "In exceptional situations or for security reasons it is possible to introduce a tightening of the ban on entering the Sejm,” said the district prosecutor’s statement, quoted by news portal Wirtualna Polska (July 3). Prosecutor Magdalena Kolodziej said there would be no investigation.

Access to the parliament buildings was denied to reporters seeking single-day credentials for the four weeks ending May 25th, affecting many free-lancers. Holders of permanent press credentials were not restricted. “The changes introduced do not in any way aim at hindering the work of the media, or limiting access to public information, suppressing press criticism or violating citizens' rights stemming directly from the Constitution,” said a statement from the Sejm press office at the time. (See more about media in Poland here)

Journalist representatives feel differently. “The Press Club Polska will appeal this decision to the courts,” said spokesperson for the group Marcin Lewicki, quoted by Gazeta Prawna (July 3). The decision "grossly violated the freedom of practicing the profession by the majority of journalists.” The group quoted the Polish Press Law: "Whoever impedes or suppresses press criticism is subject to a fine or imprisonment.” (See more about press/media freedom here)

Speaking more broadly, Journalist Society (Towarzystwo Dziennikarskie) president Seweryn Blumsztajn appealed “to journalistic associations and media institutions in Europe to continue to strongly insist on the freedom of speech in our country and to follow the situation of the media in Poland,” quoted by press.pl (July 3). “We also call for presenting the situation both on the national and international level.“

“At the moment, we have total media freedom in Poland,” said deputy prime minister and culture minister Piotr Glinski at a recent Warsaw media conference, quoted by Rzeczpospolita (June 11). In its 2018 Press Freedom Index press freedom advocate Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) ranked Poland 58th in the world, down from 37th ten years earlier. RSF has complained that the European Commission omitted criticism of Poland on press freedom from infringement procedures related to judicial independence.

Fake news channel very touchy about being called fake news
"insulting"

The ongoing push-back by fake news purveyors is fairly exhausting. The logic goes something like this: complaints about our fake news, even if correct, are unfair so we will retaliate by blocking your real news channels. Nice.

German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle will not get the boot from the Russian Federation, reported state news agency TASS (July 2). Roskomnadzor, media regulator/censor in the Russian Federation, conducted an “inspection” and “discovered some violations” but “does not plan to suspend broadcast of the channel in Russia.”

A statement from Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova last week, reported by news agency RAI Novosti (June 29), that “insulting” social media posts from Deutsche Welle should be investigated led to a a politician demanding action. The nature of the alleged transgression have not been specifically identified but appear related to pre-World Cup news coverage. (See more about fake news here)

All this comes as French media regulator CSA concluded that reports broadcast on RT France, the French language channel of notorious Russian channel RT (Russia Today), about chemical attacks in Syria earlier this year were, at best, misleading. The CA, however, decided not to impose sanctions. Roskomnadzor hit back threatening to block French public international TV channel France 24 as “under control of a foreign entity,” reported Ekho Moscvy (June 29), which would violate Russian law. A France 24 representative said it had not received any official notice from Roskomnadzor and, anyway, the channel “respects the laws of the countries where they are represented.”

UK media regulator Ofcom is investigating RT for nearly a dozen “breaches” of impartiality rules. It is also looking into RTs “fit and proper” status if the government determines, at some point, "unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the UK” in the recent nerve gas poisoning case. Ms Zakharova responded that "not a single British media outlet will work in our country if they shut down Russia Today (RT).”

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