Let's protest censorship in Poland's mainstream media!

Cezary Gmyz, an investigative reporter for the Polish newspaper Rzeczypospolita had been fired from his job today for writing an article on plane crash in Smolensk that was seen unfavorable by the government of Mr. Tusk. The newspaper chief editor met with the prosecutor office before publishing the article. The prosecutor office waited until afternoon the day the article was published to call a press conference and deny the story. The denial was not really a denial as they said that could not confirm the news either way, because laboratory test were needed and they would take 6 months.

I think it is the duty of all decent people around the world to contact their news organization to protest this clear act of censorship that brings Poland to Belarus standards. Mr. Gmyz did his job and now we should do ours.

Mr. Gmyz and three of his colleagues were fired by the owner and management board of Presspublica, the editor of Rzeczpospolita, for ruining the newspaper's credibility by publishing unconfirmed material. The sole owner of Presspublica is Grzegorz Hajdarowicz and here you can read his statement:


and the board's statement:
rp.pl/artykul/949185.html


No he didn't, therefore he was fired. End of. I wish him success writing for Fakt.

good riddence.

Gmyz knew the risks he was taking when he wrote his lies. Journalists write BS all the time, but when they are caught they either need to be able to take it on the chin or else they need to have credible sources to prove that they were writing info based on solid info.

Gmyz did not.

Anyway, he'll skulk off the radar for a while, come back in a year or two and write a book about the whole event and doubtlessly all the sheeple will buy his nonsense book and make him a rich man.

nah. He is finished. Many lie, but this was a very serious lie. He is not the only one fired. 4 more people or so.

Journalists always come back, they're like effing cockroaches :P

Sounds to me like he's just got himself a job of life at Radio Maryja / Nasz Dzennik / TV Trwam.

well, maybe that was his final test to pass;). I don't consider it a job, but an isolation from reality.

Sometimes I think that, and sometimes I wonder if that's what people are trying to get me to think. I really don't know. But at least I know that I don't know.

Merged: Cezary Gmyz explains himself on 'Bliżej'

This is yesterday evenings show [08/11/12] from TVP info with Cezary Gmyz as one of the people who was invited. I cannot remember whether there is a topic on his article in Rzeczpospolita about explosives found on the plane, that got him fired. I do remember it being discussed on this forum and if there is a thread on it somewhere then a mod can just add my post on to that thread.

PS Obviously this is for the Polish speaking on here who can understand it. If someone does not and wants me to give a summary of what was said [I won't go through it line for line though] then let me know.

dailymotion.com/video/xuyui2_cezary-gmyz-w-programie-jana-pospieszalskiego-bliyej_news

Wrong. He was fired for writing an article that wasn't factual, that contained numerous mistakes and one that did a great deal of harm to the newspaper that he worked for.


I think we all know that when a journalist runs with a story that is subsequently absolutely discredited - he has to either resign or quit. There's no second chance in journalism - he got it wrong, badly wrong - and paid the price.


Has he been hired yet, I wonder? Either them or Gazeta Polska would love to have such a person on board.

Who was his source?
What were their aims in giving him the story?
and
Who gets to decide what gets *confirmed* in the rather murky world this story lives in?

Not quite. It was more that he said that the substances were from explosives rather than could be from explosives. As he said in the video link I posted, he was fried for naming the substances that were supposedly not confirmed, but his sources actually had confirmed them. What is more surprising is how it got published. Surely the paper would read the article before and say 'no it can't be put up like that, it needs to be re-worded.' Or are the journalists so trusted that their work is not looked over or edited? It took other people to read it and go 'hey this is terrible, you can't put that in' for the paper to look over it and say 'whoops, sorry' and get rid of the journalist.

Pretty big mistake to make, all things considered. He more or less reignited the civil war in Polish politics - which is a pretty serious thing to do.


He made a rookie mistake - he relied on sources that may not have been in his interest.


The editor was fired too, so I suspect it was simply a ill-judged move. If they had got it right - the journalist and editor would be in line for immense praise. They got it wrong, and so they fall. What makes it worse is that many serious people read Rzeczpospolta, particularly for the "professional" content. They do not want to read Gazeta Polska type "journalism" - and so the editor, journalist and others had to go.

What a spin. How does it fit the story that the owner of the newspaper decides to return to Poland the day before publication, then decides to call Tusk spokesman at 1 AM, then meets with him in person at 1:30 AM (interesting connections, ain't they... or just a normal way of doing business). Then next day the owner decides that the article is less than professional....much less, so much less in fact that famous reporter with 20 years of experience must be fired on spot.

One more. The prosecutor office knows about the publication day ahead and can make a statement at any time since the article is so explosive it can take down the government but instead decides to wait until late afternoon the next day... waiting for... yeah, what were they waiting for? Certain politician to make a statement? Worked beautifully, the whole thing.

He's the owner - he can do what he wants. If I owned a newspaper and someone got it wrong like that, they'd be fired too - it made a laughing stock out of Rzeczpospolita and made people say "stupid PiS newspaper" - not what the owner wants.


Nice story. Did Gazeta Polska publish that particular rubbish?


Are you suggesting that the journalist and Kaczynski were manipulated? Because if so, I agree with you - it seems that Kaczynski walked straight into a political trap, and the journalist clearly got it wrong.

[Moved from]: PiS to create Poland's national media after election

wyborcza.pl/1,75478,18532289,narodowa-telewizja-polska.html#TRNajCzytSST

GW is reporting that PiS after winning the election plan to thoroughly revamp the broadcasting authority. A new staff will be emplaced and work is already under way on a draft law reforming the hitherto structure. The media are to be not public, but national.

My comment: Probably they will be patterned on the Beeb (no adverts) which has long been a goal to which public television and radio in different counrties have aspired.

More likely something they can control, like the fiasco they tried last time.

The idea is to abolish the independence of the supervisory board and bring it directly under ministerial control.

In other words, the government will then be able to directly decide what is broadcast, which means goodbye journalistic independence and hello endless programmes about Smolensk, the Church and how PO are bad.

Even today it is under the informal control of the coalition. TVP3 is under the control of PSL, TVP1 and TVP2 under the control of PO.

Some weeks ago I read a fascinating interview with Stefan Chwin, novelist and literally critic, to Gazeta Wyborcza. Stefan Chwin is the one who "predicted" the present political change in Poland back in 2013. He was explaining how PO see Poland today and how this perception leads them to wrong electoral campaigns. A fascinating picture it was and I was amazed at the brilliance and ability for the political analysis in this man. And he says he has always been a sympathizer with PO. When I was reading this interview, the opinions of yourself and other of the British "gang" expats in Poland sprang immadiately to my mind. What the foreign people in Poland say on the PF is exactly what PO think and Stefan Chwin says why it is wrong. Reading this interview should be an absolute must for you, Deplh.

As far as the media are concerned, Chwin was giving an example of Kukiz. Why a man who eventually got more than 20% of the vote in the presidential election had been completely phased out from the mainstream media until this success in the election? The media cannot ignore him any longer and Chwin says: just look how Kukiz treats the top journalists who talk to him and why people like it - the way he treats them is so different form the way that top politicians of PO talk to those journalist and people like it even more!

Could you link it then?

if my friends on this forum remember, as well as respectable moderators, long time ago i suggested that Poland need some real national media, kind of Voice of Poland. Hand on heart, it was in context of necessity for re-Slavicization of Slavs in Eastern and Southern Germany.

Now that PiS suggests same idea. So, i think to myself, maybe i deserve Polish national pension.

Merged: The official media censorship in Poland has just started?

I've just visited probably the most popular (visitor-count and popularity-wise) mainstream newspapers in Poland - gazeta.pl and wyborcza.pl. Here is the text in Polish that appears under selected articles - in place when reader comments would normally appear:


Translation into English:

Under our texts about refugees there appeared alarming number of comments that called for the offenses and contained racist and xenophobic content. We do not want them to show up here. We reject the violation of the dignity of other people on our forum. Therefore, we decided that we exclude the possibility of commenting under our texts about refugees. We will also report to the prosecutor cases of incitement to racial and religious hatred.

This shows two things:

1. Mass-media in Poland is not objective and not free. They have an official narrative and they don't care to know their readers' views.

2. People behind gazeta.pl / wyborcza.pl treat their readers as dumb human sheep - if they don't comply to the official story and dare to challenge their official views, they will be reported to police.

Are there any other similar examples of violating freedom of speech in the media in Poland? Is the role of the media in Poland to police what people should think (under the threat of imprisonment)? How do other people in Poland feel about that? Does the word 'boycott' ring the bell?

There is a difference between lack of freedom of speech and not allowing hate speech. Mixing this 2 things is very dangerous in my opinion. I don't understand how someone can put an equal sing there.

Agreed, Shaman. It's an old paradox that in order to have freedom there must also be restrictions and this is very. True about the media. By the way, using the phrase 'mainstream media', especially if abbreviated to 'MSM', is a dead giveaway that the person who uses it has a tin foil helmet at home.

So please explain the difference: in China a state bureaucrat decides what the freedom of speech is. In Poland a paid editor / manipulator decides what qualifies freedom of speech. Both in China and now in Poland people will be reported to police and interrogated / put in jail when a bureaucrat doesn't like what a commentator thinks. Is this what Poles wanted when they fought against the Soviet oppression back in the 80ties? Probably not.

Again, read my translation if you don't understand Polish, especially this part:

"We (the official mass-media in Poland) will report to the prosecutor cases of incitement to racial and religious hatred."

What's really dangerous is the fact that they proclaim that they are unbiased enough to know what 'racial or religious hatred' is (isn't it to be determined by the court of law, not a bureaucrat working for the official media)?

They could do it in a civilized way - add a button and write 'Click here to read uncensored comments of readers. Note that some of them may be offensive. Don't click if you are easily offended.' But they went the China way: 'We know that half of the Poland's population correctly concluded this article is biased and is in fact written by EU officials, but in order not to disrupt the official agenda we won't allow dissidents to be heard.'

Merged: News Censorship in Poland

As of 22 January, The staff at Radio Poland have deleted over a hundred comments and blocked a number of it regular users with out notice or warnings from their English language Facebook page. The users who were blocked and the comments deleted all had one thing in common they took a pro Poland stand, they were critical of the media manufactured crisis in Polish Democracy and supported the PiS. No comments reflecting views that were anti-government, liberal-leftist, anti-Poland and or anti-PiS were deleted or their authors blocked. In the last two weeks numerous articles have appeared on Radio Poland English language website that were part and parcel of a PO sponsored propaganda campaign to overthrow a government elected by a clear majority of the voting public. The editorial tone of numerous articles is designed to convey a message to the English speaking media that PiS rules without public support and it actions are illegitimate. Radio Poland is a a publicly funded body that has been hijacked by PO supporters in an effort to attack the government. This must be stopped!

It's a pity you aren't showing any specific examples of deleted and not deleted comments. From my point of view what you are writing is just a PiS propaganda (similar to the PO propaganda but in my opinion much stronger)...

But there is nothing to worry about. If this radio station hasn't been taken over by PiS yet, it will certainly happen very soon, as it happens with the whole public media in Poland now (by the way, they are going to start its TV equivalent). Then you will be able to see deleting the comments of PO followers and not deleting the comments of PiS followers :)

Of course it's PiS propaganda. Polskie Radio has actually been writing very balanced coverage for years - but as is normal for PiS, anything that doesn't constantly praise PiS and criticise the opposition is propaganda.

We should be under no illusion that they are doing this and also reading this forum.