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Fake News” in Poland

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Fake News” in Poland 092 092 DISINFORNATION: DISINFORMATION PRACTICES IN CEE Authoritarian Change, Public Broadcasters, and “Fake News” in Poland PIOTR BENIUSZYS PIOTR BENIUSZYS 093 uthoritarian regimes and dic- tatorships of any kind have al- ways typically striven to control the flow of information in the IN A WORLD countries they governed. All FILLED WITH FALSE mediaA outlets that would come under con- trol of such political systems were bound OR INACCURATE to cease as reliable sources of informa- tion. The political agenda of the govern- NEWS, ment would thence dictate their political news broadcasting: some facts would be AUTHORITARIAN omitted, others manipulated or distorted, blown out of proportion, or even simply REGIMES CAN created out of nothing. SET UP PUBLIC At the same time, some authoritarian re- BROADCASTING gimes would declare themselves genu- inely free democracies and would hope to NEWS OUTLETS transmit this kind of image to at least part of the world. The fact-checking activities of AND PUBLISH free media, usually from the democracies abroad, would present a major challenge DISINFORMATION to this image-building strategy, as lies and propaganda of their state media would get ALMOST exposed time and again. In some cases, this threat would constitute an incentive WITHOUT LIMITS to limit the frequency of false information broadcasting to only the most urgent or inevitable situations. But in today’s reality, where people are permanently confronted lish disinformation almost without limits. As with a tremendous amount of online news public TV and radio stations in democratic sources (many of which are of rather low countries still enjoy a somewhat better rep- quality), with identity media outlets, which utation than other outlets2, them being tak- dress up ideological formation as news, en over by a government which is gearing and, of course, with blunt so-called “fake towards introducing a change of the politi- news” spreaders, the general trust in media cal system – away from liberal democracy credibility has been profoundly damaged1. – creates a potential for spreading disinfor- It has now become fairly easy for anyone mation. These manipulations can prove to who broadcasts political information to in- be resistant to exposure for quite a number sist that it is the others who spread lies. of years. In Poland, since the electoral suc- cess of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, the In a world filled with false or inaccurate public broadcasters, especially the public news, authoritarian regimes can set up Polish Television (TVP), are a case in point. public broadcasting news outlets and pub- 2 http://www.quotenmeter.de/n/99812/vertrauen-in- 1 https://www.cjr.org/special_report/the-fall-rise-and- nachrichten-ard-und-zdf-dominieren-ausser-beim- fall-of-media-trust.php moderator [in German] 094 DISINFORNATION: DISINFORMATION PRACTICES IN CEE POLISH PUBLIC TELEVISION AFTER election campaign spots, which can be THE 2015 POLITICAL CHANGE roughly divided in two categories: on the Not only during election campaigns has it one hand, positive reports on the govern- become clear to most observers and many ment and PiS candidates illustrating their institutions that both TVP’s flagship daily various successes and never mentioning news programme “Wiadomosci” and its any mistakes of theirs; and on the other 24/7 news channel TVP Info have turned hand, strongly negative reports on the into a completely one-sided, government opposition who they claim governed dis- and PiS-supporting, opposition-bashing, astrously before 2015 and since then only political campaign operator. The news re- attempt to maliciously spoil the Polish days ports of “Wiadomosci” have the quality of in the sun. This has been eliciting protests for a few years now, not only with the participation of opposition politicians (who, in addition to skewed news reporting, also often face an openly hostile treatment by TVP anchors and journalists when they, on occasion, TVP’S FLAGSHIP appear on televised debate programmes there). Also private citizens who vote for DAILY NEWS opposition parties and pay a monthly sub- scription fee that benefits public broadcast- PROGRAMME ers in Poland, other non-public media who criticize TVP’s conduct on grounds of jour- “WIADOMOSCI” nalistic ethos and national and international AND ITS 24/7 NEWS institutions have voiced their criticism. CHANNEL TVP INFO It is worth noting that the Polish ombuds- man office (Adam Bodnar, who held the of- HAVE TURNED fice until early September 2020) is one of the very few appointed officials who remain INTO A COMPLETELY outside of PiS control so far. As such, it has issued a formal letter of protest, pointing ONE-SIDED, out that TVP is not fulfilling its legal obliga- tion to present political subjects in a fair and GOVERNMENT balanced manner. Especially by not grant- ing all candidates equal airtime in order to AND PIS- inform voters about their programmes, they are judged according to political prefer- SUPPORTING, ence. Bodnar stressed that in the month of February 2020 TVP granted 90 minutes to OPPOSITION- inform about PiS presidential candidate and BASHING, POLITICAL incumbent Andrzej Duda, while the Left’s candidate, Robert Biedron, received only CAMPAIGN 44 seconds. The ombudsman’s letter was simply left unanswered both by the TVP and OPERATOR PiS-controled media supervisory bodies. PIOTR BENIUSZYS 095 Figure 1: TVP's "Wiadomosci" news items on political parties ahead of parliamentary elec- tions (September 27 - October 11, 2019) In addition to that, the OSCE report on guests for the primetime political talk show 2019 Polish parliamentary general elections on TVP1 (aired directly after “Wiadomosci”) stated that while the voting procedure was also proved to be unbalanced, as 14 guests democratic and fair, the political reporting represented PiS, and only 6 the opposition of TVP and public radio stations was “clearly parties combined (also, no opposition poli- biased and deprived of any kind of supervi- tician appeared as a single guest, they were sion and had a negative effect on the vot- each time flanked by a PiS politician)4. ers’ capability to make informed electoral decisions”3. This reality is also expressed in public opin- ion polls on media reliability in Poland. A report on the balance of positive/negative The most recent of them, conducted by reporting by the TVP from the 2019 election the major public opinion studies institute, campaign (issued by the “Towarzystwo Dzi- IBRIS, found that the majority of Poles ennikarskie” journalistic community) leaves (51%) consider “Wiadomosci” to be biased no space for doubt. During two key weeks and unreliable, with over 49% expressing in September and October 2019 over half of the same view on TVP Info. Major private all political news materials – 67, to be ex- news broadcasters fared much better: only act – concentrated on PiS. 66 of them were less than 9% believe Polsat to be biased, positive, 1 was neutral. 52 materials focused whereas 16% see TVN’s news broadcasting on the combined opposition parties and as skewed5 [See: Figure 2]. each and every single one of them was negative [See: Figure 1]. The selection of 4 http://towarzystwodziennikarskie.pl/ [in Polish] 3 On the ombudsman intervention and the OSCE report, see: https://krytykapolityczna.pl/archiwum/dosc-stron- 5 Poll results available at: https://www.press.pl/tresc/ niczosci-mediow-publicznych-rpo-zada-wyjasnien- 62149,ibris-dla-onetu_-_wiadomosci_-i-tvp-info-nier- od-prezesa-tvp/ [in Polish] zetelnie-relacjonuja-kampanie [in Polish] 096 DISINFORNATION: DISINFORMATION PRACTICES IN CEE Figure 2: Percentage of Poles considering major TV news media unreliable Polish public broadcasters have a history they are repulsed by it. The only use for it is of not being completely fair and balanced, to solidify the core PiS electorate, who seek as the system of appointing the TVP’s and a simple and clear signal”7. radio’s management after 1989 has always been politicized. Of course it was undoubt- The swift dismissal of many journalists at edly a progress compared to the commu- TVP after PiS gained control over the televi- nist era, but it never ceased to be a focus sion was also unprecedented. of strong political controversy. Yet, even conservative-leaning commentators agree The most popular anchors found them- that the treatment of public broadcasters selves on a “black shortlist” and were fired by the PiS government since 2015 has been within a few weeks of the takeover. In the unprecedented. Andrzej Stankiewicz of the months thereafter, a wave swept away ap- Onet.pl news website said, “TVP has never proximately 160 popular journalists, some attacked opposition parties so brutally. It is, of whom quit on their own, unable to ac- in fact, not a right-wing or pro-PiS televi- cept the dramatic political bias or censor- sion, most of all it is a television, which is ship of their reporting work by the newly fighting all of the enemies that PiS singles installed top management or editor’s office. out: LGBT people, the right-wing party Some waited to be let go in order to file Konfederacja, Germans, Jews”. Piotr Za- lawsuits against TVP and won compensa- remba of the right-wing “Sieci” weekly says tion in court. Some had been engaged for that the bias of TVP is so utterly obvious a limited period of time and their contracts that “people who have reservations about have not been renewed. Yet, a substan- PiS, they just don’t watch “Wiadomosci”6, tial number of rather technical employees (such as cameramen, researchers, sound or 6 For statements by Stankiewicz and Zaremba, see: light technicians) had to stay on simply due https://www.press.pl/tresc/57387,stronniczosc-tvp-w- informacjach-i-publicystyce-moze-miec-wplyw-na- wynik-wyborow [in Polish] [own translations] 7 Ibid.
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