A government group consisting of publishers’ representatives will be formed to work on solutions regarding changes to the Copyright Act, said Bartosz Węglarczyk, editor-in-chief of Onet and chairman of the Polish Media Council, after today’s meeting between the prime minister and the media.
Today, a meeting between Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Speaker of the Senate Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska and representatives of the media on changes in copyright law took place at the Social Partnership Dialogue Centre. The topic of the meeting was the amendment of the law implementing the EU DSM (Digital Single Market) Directive.
Mutual admiration society?
Editors-in-chief and heads of organisations representing publishers – signatories to the open letter on changes to copyright law, addressed to the Prime Minister in March this year, were invited to the meeting.
The meeting was very good. I thought there was a very good atmosphere. There are two important things we need to convey: there will be a government group consisting of publishers’ representatives that will work very quickly to find solutions that will satisfy both parties. We have received assurances from the Prime Minister and the President of the Senate, since they were both present at the meeting, in the presence of the Minister of Culture, that tomorrow the Senate Committee will consider amendments to the Copyright Act and then suspend the procedure.
– said Weglarczyk after the meeting.
She will suspend deliberations until this group of publishers and the government determine what the provisions of the law will be. When the decisions are made, the Senate will meet very soon, this month, and adopt amendments to the bill in the form that this group has agreed to.
– he said.
He added that the prime minister also promised to talk to the Speaker of the Sejm, Szymon Hołownia, so that the Sejm would consider the Senate’s amendments and adopt the bill during its last session in July.
These are the main findings. I have a very good impression after this meeting. I hope that the law will be changed in such a way that publishers and journalists, because it is very important to emphasize that it is not only about publishers, but also about content authors, will be able to talk to big tech companies at some point. On an equal footing and that journalism in Poland will survive
– stressed the editor-in-chief of Onet.
Agreement on principles
As he said, the prime minister and publishers agree that “in terms of principles, i.e. there is no journalistic independence without financial independence and that publishers in Poland, regardless of whether they are small or large, should simply have the right to compete with big tech on an equal footing, yes, we agreed on that.”
Asked when the group’s first meeting would take place, he replied: “The group will meet immediately, in the near future. It was said that the group would start working tomorrow. Because we have a Senate meeting on July 24 and this group has to complete its work by then.”
He said that “the group has to be very small, just to be able to work quickly.”
The prime minister’s invitation comes in response to the appeal last week by publishers and journalists of the Polish media to politicians to change the provisions of copyright and related rights adopted in the Sejm, which are unfavorable to the media. The appeal stressed that when the regulation on copyright in the digital world was adopted, their demands for implementation were ignored.
We expected the introduction of mediation instruments between platforms and publishers in disputes over royalties, compensation for publication of content on the internet and protection against copying.
– we are reading.
It must be said that it happened quickly. For a handful of beads in the form of vague promises, Tusk’s allied media protested against copyright.
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Source: wPolityce