SDP's strong position on the assessment of the state of media freedom in Poland: The decline in the ranking is incomprehensible and unjustified

The SDP Press Freedom Monitoring Centre strongly protests against the assessment of the state of media freedom in 2019, which is harmful to Poland, contained in the report of „Reporters without Borders” published on 16 April this year. According to this report, the level of media freedom in our country is currently the lowest in a decade, and Poland has been classified in 59th place (out of 180 countries evaluated) and for four years it has been systematically placed in this ranking ever lower. it reads on the website of the Association of Polish Journalists (SDP).

The SDP website features an announcement in which the Association opposes a decline in Poland’s position in the Reporters Without Borders 2019 ranking. As the announcement reads, Poland’s decline in the SDP ranking is „incomprehensible and unjustified”.

In 2016, Poland fell from 18th to 47th place, a year later to 54th place, in 2018 to 58th place, and currently to 59th place. According to the authors of the Report, it is still „in the group of countries where there are clear problems with respect for the freedom of the press”. This is a detrimental assessment. The press system in Poland endures the freedom of the media in a sufficient way and in a manner analogous to that of countries with well-established democracies. Poland’s decline in the global ranking of media freedom by as many as 41 places compared to the 2015 „Report” is incomprehensible and unjustified in the opinion of CMWP SDP

— emphasizes the Association.

In the commentary to this year’s downgrading of Poland’s position in the ranking, attention was drawn primarily to „legal actions of government representatives against independent media”, the only example of which is the fact that Mr. Jarosław Kaczyński, president of the Law and Justice party, sent a report to the prosecutor’s office about the possibility of committing a crime of defamation by „Gazeta Wyborcza” (the politician demands an apology for the content violating his good name in publications about his conversations with the Austrian businessman G. Birgfellner).

In addition, the representatives of Reporters Without Borders stated that there is nothing to stop the current authorities in our country from making the media Polish once again, but it has not been clarified what kind of actions are involved or what their possible reprehensibility would be. The hypotheses that the public media have been turned into national media and transformed into a tube of government propaganda, and their new directors do not accept opposing views or impartiality among journalists (without any justification for such a radical thesis) have also been repeated, and it has been reminded that TVP SA has been credited with the fact that its speech of hatred towards the President of Gdańsk, Paweł Adamowicz, contributed to his death (CMWP SDP, among others, protested against it  - statement of 25.01.19.) Moreover, the „Report” indicates that at the beginning of this year demonstrations in this matter were organized in front of TVP Info and regional branches of TVP, but no mention was made of attacks on TVP employees, including Magdalena Ogórek and Michał Rachoń

— it reads.

The report does not include any contradictory opinions expressed by Reporters without Borders about the low assessment of the state of media freedom in Poland, which allows us to state that in relation to our country the report is ideological and not substantive. Therefore, CMWP SDP appeals to journalists to be cautious and reliable when quoting the conclusions contained in this Report and warns against generalising them in the media due to the limited and subjectively selected research material that was analysed and the lack of objectivity in its assessment

— it has been written.

The statement highlights that the Reporters Without Borders organisation, when creating its report, relies on the analysis of questionnaires sent to selected media representatives, among whom there is no SDP.

Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) is an international non-governmental organisation monitoring press freedom around the world, founded in France in 1985. The press freedom ranking has been prepared by it since 2002. It is currently based on an analysis of questionnaires sent to media representatives in 180 countries listed in the ranking selected by the RWB. Among them there are no representatives of the largest and oldest organization of journalists in Poland - the Association of Polish Journalists - nor a representative of the Press Freedom Monitoring Centre, a body of the SDP, whose task is, among others, to take a public stand and provide assistance to journalists in cases of threat to freedom of expression

— it reads.

Tłum. K.J.