The Civic Coalition did not allow journalists from Telewizja WPolce24 to enter the party’s National Council, where Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski was chosen as a candidate in the presidential elections.
Our colleagues’ request for accreditation was rejected and the event organizers claimed that their numbers were limited, which is contradicted by the fact that there were many teams of journalists present at the Council.
There is no doubt that this is a form of censorship. How else can you describe a situation in which a journalistic team is banned just because it speaks critically about this party? And this is done by a group that, let me remind you, is financed with public money, like every other group in Poland. That is why such events are organized by my tax authorities and yours, dear reader.
Let me remind you one more thing: during the time of the United Right government, it almost never happened that journalists from the left-liberal mainstream were not allowed to attend press conferences or other similar events. It is true that some of these journalists were occasionally unable to ask questions at press conferences, but this was the exception rather than the rule. We all remember well situations in which PiS politicians who held public positions were ‘pelted’ with unpleasant questions by reluctant journalists.
What journalists from left-liberal media are allowed to do is of course not intended for journalists from conservative media, who find it increasingly difficult to do their work in Poland. This is the biggest problem. Donald Tusk can treat conservative journalists this way because the establishment allows him to. No one from left-liberal circles thinks about supporting and defending their colleagues.
Is it possible that freedom of journalism and freedom of speech are only limited to those who think like them?
Do these values, which they claim are the basis of their actions, really mean nothing to them? Has journalistic solidarity really lost its value?
Tusk is a politician with clear autocratic tendencies and there is nothing new about that. What is important, however, is how our colleagues from the left-wing spectrum of the media scene will respond to the increasing crackdown on conservative journalists that is certainly in the offing. The Polish media scene is probably the most pluralistic in Europe at the moment. Will it remain that way?
Source: wPolityce