Politics and the media have always been closely intertwined in Central and Eastern Europe, both before and since the end of the Cold War. Recently, however, their relationship has recently taken on a new and disturbing twist in Poland, one of the region’s largest and – many would argue – most progressive markets.
Earlier this week saw the dismissal of Bronislaw Wildstein, the head of the public broadcaster TVP, following what is believed to be have been pressure from the country’s President, Lech Kaczynski. It also saw Mariusz Walter and Jan Wejchert, the founders of ITI Group, strenuously deny that the company ever received funding from FOZZ, a long-defunct fund that took on Polish foreign debts, and had links with the communist era security forces.
A process of ‘lustration’ currently under way in Poland, and indeed the Czech Republic and other Central and East European countries, has as its aim the exposure of activities undertaken by well-known people during the communist era. Its most recent high-profile casualty was a newly appointed Archbishop of Warsaw, who was forced to stand down after conceding he had had contacts with the security services.
Such a witch-hunt can only have an adverse effect on the Polish media industry, whose other recent ‘targets’ have included Zygmunt Solorz-Zak, the owner of the national commercial broadcaster Polsat. Nor can political pressure and influence on TVP, be it by left of centre or conservative governments, be justified.
TV in Poland, as indeed throughout the region, now finds itself a critical juncture. EU expansion has created a favourable environment for foreign investment both in the new member states and others (such as Croatia, for instance) that may soon also join. To maintain it, political influence on the industry must surely be reduced. At the same time, a line should finally be drawn under people’s activities, whether real or imaginary, in what is now a bygone era. (CD)
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