RSF decries curbs on media access to Polish parliament

In a protest against the new rules, dozens of opposition parliamentarians occupied the speaker’s podium in the Polish parliament for several hours on 16 December, blocking all proceedings.

At the same time, in response to a call from the Committee for the Defence of Democracy (KOD), hundreds of people gathered in front of the parliament building, chanting “Free media!” and anti-government slogans.

Under the new regulations, only five officially-approved TV channels will be allowed cameras inside parliament to film its debates, while each media outlet will be limited to two accredited parliamentary reporters. Increasingly restrictive measures as reporters already encountered difficulties in working within the parliament and accessing to parliamentarians.

“What with public media now taking orders from the government, journalists subjected to economic constraints and the stifling of privately-owned media outlets, media independence has been badly eroded by this parliament’s measures,” said Pauline Adès-Mével, the head of RSF’s EU-Balkans desk.

“These are very grave violations of the values on which the European Union is founded, in particular, those of freedom, democracy, the rule of law and pluralism, which are supposed to be common to all member states. With these new rules, the government is attacking not only the work of journalists but also the public’s right to be informed about the work of the parliamentarians they elected.”

A score of Polish media outlets – including commercial TV stations, the Gazeta Wyborcza and Rzeczpospolita newspapers and privately-owned radio stations – decided to boycott parliament’s proceedings on 16 December in protest against the new curbs.

Poland is ranked 47th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2016 World Press Freedom Index, a fall of 29 places from its position in the 2015 Index.