The Situation of Media and Journalists in Poland in 2015-2023: Why it is Worth Remembering and Knowing what Happened in Russia

• In Event: Memory and Self-Memory of Media in Transition in Poland and Russia

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to present the situation of journalists and media in Poland in 2015-2023, when the right-wing Law and Justice party was in power. To check whether the state policy at that time implemented solutions previously used in Russia. The importance of the topic is evidenced by media freedom reports, presented by Freedom House, Reporters without Borders and the V-Dem Institute, among others, which clearly indicate restrictions on media freedom in Poland in the period under review. The presentation will discuss and analyze the formal and legal changes to the media system in Poland, which contributed to the deterioration of the situation of journalists and media. An important supplement to the presentation will be data from research conducted by the author with a Polish team as part of the research project of the Worlds of Journalist Studies association (WoJS, 2021-2023), which involved examining the population of journalists from 80 countries in the context of determining threats to journalistic and editorial freedom. Data from the analysis of the Polish media system and from research on journalistic autonomy will be confronted with the solutions adopted and functioning in Russia. Initial conclusions allow us to state that the changes introduced in Poland largely corresponded to those introduced in Russia in the 1990s. Therefore, in the author's opinion, knowledge and memory of the Russian scenario of appropriating the media and taking away citizens' freedom are necessary.

Author

• Katarzyna Aneta Konarska, U of Wroclaw (Poland)