Polish government to restrict journalists’ access to Parliament

Picture credit: Wojtek Radwanski / AFP

The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ) have today strongly condemned the latest attack on media freedom by Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) to restrict media access Parliament. Several thousand people have protested on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Warsaw over the government’s plans to impose restrictions on media coverage of parliament.

The rules proposed by the head office of the Sejm, the lower house of Parliament, will ban all recording of parliamentary sessions. Only five selected Polish TV stations will be allowed to record or broadcast parliamentary sessions. The new rules will also limit the number of journalists allowed in the building (maximum two accredited parliamentary reporters for each media outlet).

According to a document available on the Sejm website, 300 permanent and 200 temporary media accreditations have been issued in 2016. During the sessions of Sejm up to 300 daily passes are granted.

On Saturday, journalists held a meeting with the speaker of the upper house of parliament to discuss the new rules. Another meeting is scheduled for Monday.

Polish President Andrzej Duda has offered to mediate. He held meetings with opposition party leaders who said they had demanded the proposed press restrictions be dropped.

Poland’s human rights ombudsman Adam Bodnar reminded that access to the Parliament is granted by the country’s constitution. He told the news channel TVN24 that “The role of journalists is not only to follow computer screens, but also to seize the opportunity to talk to politicians and to do real-time checks of what’s going on.”


For more information, please contact IFJ on + 32 2 235 22 16

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