Poland's president signs media law despite EU concerns - Polidicks

[url=http://bigstory.ap.org/article/da37da0c436643c886ecc1349055b638/polands-president-signs-media-law-despite-eu-concerns]Source[/url] [quote]WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A new wave of concern for media freedom in Poland rose among European Union leaders and independent journalists after Poland's president signed a temporary new law Thursday that's a step toward [B]giving the government full control of state radio and television. [/B] The legislation will take effect one day after it is published, which should be within days, and will expire June 30. By then, a sweeping new law intended to overhaul the state-run broadcasters and the PAP news agency is expected to be in place. President Andrzej Duda signed the new legislation because he wants state media to be [B]"impartial, objective and reliable,"[/B] his aide Malgorzata Sadurska said. She added that the president believes that the private views of journalists currently interfere with the objectivity of information in state media. The new law allows for the immediate ending of the terms of the heads of state radio and television, and transfers the authority to appoint successors to the treasury minister, from a separate radio and TV committee that oversees the media. It also limits the number of members sitting on the state broadcasters' supervisory and management boards. The legislation was proposed and put on a fast track for approval by the new conservative ruling party, which has embarked on sweeping state and social reforms, including the new media law, that have raised eyebrows in Brussels. The European Commission will debate Poland's rule of law on Jan. 13, a step that could eventually result in the country losing its EU voting rights on matters that concern the entire 28-nation bloc. Poland joined the EU in 2004. The new law has also provoked concern among independent media organizations, which say that it threatens media freedom in Poland. The "measures taken by the Polish government are contradictory to media pluralism and independence of public service broadcasting, and to democracy in Poland," the European Federation of Journalists said Thursday in a letter to Gunther Oettinger, the European commissioner responsible for media issues. "They would be in clear contradiction to EU fundamental values," the letter added. Sadurska said the president is fully aware of the EU concerns, and believes the new law won't be detrimental. She insisted that Duda wants public media to perform their role properly. The conservative Law and Justice party that took power in November says that state broadcasters are now serving the previous, liberal and pro-EU government.[/quote] uh oh

oh fuck oh fuck,.

How soon people forget :v:

Doesn't this only affect the state broadcaster? I expect there are, or will be, several corporate broadcasters there that this doesn't affect.

[QUOTE=DaCommie1;49477592]Doesn't this only affect the state broadcaster?[/QUOTE] If it's just that then it's not bad at all, especially if it's really gonna make it impartial (not government or opposition sided). But still sucks that tax payers need to fund a state broadcaster.

[QUOTE=MatheusMCardoso;49478094]If it's just that then it's not bad at all, especially if it's really gonna make it impartial (not government or opposition sided). But still sucks that tax payers need to fund a state broadcaster.[/QUOTE] Apparently The EU is justly concerned that this will create a backdoor open for propaganda.

[QUOTE=MatheusMCardoso;49478094]If it's just that then it's not bad at all, especially if it's really gonna make it impartial (not government or opposition sided). But still sucks that tax payers need to fund a state broadcaster.[/QUOTE] Canada has the CBC, England has the BBC, both are state-operated and at least partially taxpayer-funded. It's not uncommon for countries to have state broadcasters.

[QUOTE=MatheusMCardoso;49478094]If it's just that then it's not bad at all, especially if it's really gonna make it impartial (not government or opposition sided). But still sucks that tax payers need to fund a state broadcaster.[/QUOTE] State broadcasters are pretty great.

But there were already government's controlled television and radio. This law just changes how the CEOs are chosen.

:bullshit:

It's actually one of the least worrying decision that the new government has made in the last month. Trying to destabilize constitutional court is far worse and more threatening.

I don't find it surprising - they wanted to take over the entire government and put own people on the seats - media is the 4th power here so that was kind of an obvious step.

I think the real concern is that supposedly a second law will come into play after this that is going to be much more limiting. This might be seen as a strategy to warm people slowly to the more radical reforms by starting small.

Why did people vote for this government? The usual "all immigrants and muslims are bad, we will protect you by limiting your freedoms" deal?

I dont know enough of Poland to give a full response, but this type of shit is never good. When the government decides whats impartial and objective is generally when you start getting even worse problems. As shit as America is in most things, every other country should follow our first amendment, this is why it exists, so this type of shit CANT happen. This will not end well for Poland. This is when Propaganda became a serious threat to EVERYONE Polish. Its laws like that. This does come off as a personal gain and only using the refugee conflict as a poor excuse to push this. This is the last thing anyone should want, even if you are the most Muslim hating, racist, would shoot border hoppers person, because it ultimately affects you, and is a legitimate slippery slope that isnt a fallacy. This wont end well for the actual citizens, please completely ignore refugees and immigrants concerning this.

[QUOTE=Swebonny;49489989]Why did people vote for this government? The usual "all immigrants and muslims are bad, we will protect you by limiting your freedoms" deal?[/QUOTE] After eight years with the same party, many people got tired of constant lies and being fucked in the ass (while the previous government was rather OK with the social and economic policies there were a huge amount of shady deals and corruption going behind the scenes). The downfall started with the presidential campaign where you had basically two candidates - previous president, a laughable goofball with a shady backstory, who essentially served as a puppet for the government, a safe choice really and a completely unknown underdog representing current leading party. He was young, fresh, with a great media training and a marvelous campaign (think Obama in 08, as much as I dislike the guy, his campaign was really something new in this country). So people took the bait, surprisingly he won and the rest is history, the pieces of domino has fallen. Now he's the puppet for current government. When you think about why did the people vote for them, keep in mind that for a vast majority of nation the choice wasn't to vote "for", but rather "against". The thinking was: "These guys are religious zealots with authoritarian tendencies, but I'm not gonna vote for the thieves, they've stolen enough for the last 8 years".

Tax-funded state media tends to lean towards the ruling party, be it left or right wing, sadly the way they are funded necessitates this. But as long as the rights of independent media remain intact, I don't think you should be alarmed. A similar "deeply concerning" media law was accepted in Hungary in 2010 and quite frankly not much has changed.