Polish Media and Technology in historical Perspective

The phenomenon of “the raising of the Iron curtain” played an important role in the history of freedom of Media in Eastern Europe. In November 1989, people from everywhere observed, on a live television coverage, the fall of the Berlin wall. A wall built by Joseph Stalling in order to stop the flow of people coming in and out of the East- West border. It was a symbolic moment that unified the two sides and pivotal time in the Eastern European media Before 1970, radio was considered to be the main medium in Poland. Television was not very popular, channels were very limited and the quality of transmission was substandard. Polish leaders started to appreciate television in the beginning because they used it as a channel of communication to induce the population to follow their ideology and propaganda. Later on, they became unhappy with it. First, they did not yet know how to control it, especially when prominent social, economic, and political topics would represent less the party. Second, it could no longer be used as a tool to convince people. Starting in the 70’s, Media in Poland saw different transitions. 40years of turmoil coming from too much suppression, to assuming freedom, to going back to suppression. The state owned and had total control of the media, then they gained an autonomy, and then went back to what was considered to be a communistic system. In 1997 the Article 14 of the Constitution guarantees the freedom of expression which forbids all sort of censorship, but also guarantees imprisonment for any profanity that could offend anyone. Today, Poland comprises of 30% of the broadcasting market, making it the largest one in the Eastern Europe. It possesses major broadcasters: TVP (state owned), TVN and Polsat (private) and PR ( Polskie Radio) Currently there have been some arguments between the populist ruling party and the political opposition with regards to the restriction on media access to the work in the parliament. With the rise of the new power of president Andrzej Duda, the government wants more control of the media. The treasury minister appoints the National broadcasting council. The president wants to “Repolonize” the media in Poland and make them impartial, objective and reliable. But journalists think that political meddling can compromise the freedom and the autonomy of press that it is so deserving. This is a matter that deeply concerns the European union because it undermines the EU values. Thus an investigation was launched in order to resolve the issue.