BIZNES ALERT: Efj's appeal to Karol Nawrocki to "enhance freedom of the press in Poland". SDP protestes on EFJ resolutions

Article from Business Alert – June 9, 2025:

The appeal to the Polish president-elect on media has been signed by Media Freedom fast consequence (MFRR) and Reporters Without Borders (RsF) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), which has ignored the fact that it has not been the right side of the political scene from the opposition and the liberal-left coalition has been destroying Polish media since December 2023 – both public and conservative.

The MPRR, RsF and EFJ appeal is addressed to the elected president of Poland, current President-elect Karol Nawrocki on 1 June.

Democracy after a forceful takeover of public media

On its EFJ portal, it explains that the call has a peculiar character. "The EFJ called on the President-elect to commit to building a cross-party consensus essential to strengthen freedom of the press and democracy in Poland", the appeal said.

The EFJ completely ignores the protests of the Association of Polish Journalists, which has been fighting for a year and a half to guarantee that journalistic global organizations, like the SDP, condemn the unlawful takeover of public media by the Donald Tusk government and the demolition of conservative media in our country.

The European Journalists' Federation, which only a week ago was sitting in Budapest, does not mention the heated discussion initiated by SDP delegates, about the demolition of the media strategy in Poland by the Liberal ruling authorities since 13 December 2023. On the night from 19 to 20 December 2023 the Polish Television, Polish Radio and Polish Press Agency were tried, forcefully, illegally, with the omission of the legal National Media Council.

A year and a half illegally elected puppet public media authorities, and then... the government put them in liquidation so that they could be managed more easily, eliminating strikes, protests, threatening dismissals. Besides, respective 100 people, mainly journalists, were fired or forced to release.

They know what's gonna happen?

In the appeal of the MFRR, RsF and EFJ to President-elect Karol Nawrocki, 1 can read: "Although the election of Nawrocki, an ally of the Law and Justice organization (PiS), puts him in opposition to Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government, our organisations jointly stress the request for genuine and effective cooperation to carry out so much-needed reforms of the media ecosystem, including strategical lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP) and democratisation of public media in the country," the appeal said.

It should be noted that the appeal made to the Polish president-elect by global journalistic organizations has any professional elements in it, as it provides for what can only happen after Karol Nawrocki took office of the president of Poland in early August. "The deficiency of cooperation and compromise between the fresh president and the government yet threatens to undermine the prospects of a comprehensive improvement of the Polish media sector, hindering efforts to strengthen the resilience and independency of public media, and negative impact on citizens' right to information" - said EJ's appeal.

For now, the fresh Polish president Karol Nawrocki's administration has not commented on the appeal of the MFRR, RsF and EFJ on Polish media. It is besides unknown to what address the paper was sent to, due to the fact that – from reflection of methods of operation of the EFJ – the letter could have been found, if it had already reached Warsaw, in the Chancellery, for almost 2 months inactive in office, president of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda.

Three Monkeys in EFJ

And the EFJ itself is inactive silent that she knows perfectly well the very bad situation of Polish media facing the political attacks of the ruling coalition, which lost the presidential elections to conservatives, as a consequence of which the next 5 years of president will be supported by the Law and Justice Office president Karol Nawrocki, president-elect.

SDP president Jolanta Hajdasz wrote about the disastrous situation of Polish media: “At the initiative of the Association of Polish Journalists, all delegates of the General Assembly of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), which was held on 2-3 June in Budapest, received nearly 100 pages of the study of the National Broadcasting Council in English on the crisis of public media in Poland. They were besides informed that the SDP felt that the current government in Poland was destroying public media and suppressing the free and independent functioning of private media, which present an opposition point of view to the government," said the head of SDP.

Objection from SDP!

Hajdasz wrote how the "resolution" was adopted by the EFJ 3 days before its publication, which, one more time in 3 years, led to the ignoring of comments of the largest journalistic organization in Poland, i.e. SDP (about 3,000 members) and the adoption of a marginal proposal in the environment, but pro-government writer Society (more than 150 members). The president of the SDP describes the events of the erstwhile week at the ETF gathering in Budapest:

"The writer Society (TD) which brings together media in favour of Donald Tusk's government submitted its own draft resolution, in which EFJ delegates call on the recently elected president of Poland to velocity up the adoption of media government implementing reforms in accordance with the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) of the EU and the long-term directives of the Council of Europe on media freedom. The SDP delegation voted against this resolution" - emphasised Hajdasz in sdp.pl.

Partial justification

The SDP was besides outraged by the draft message of reasons for the resolution on the Polish media, which was presented during the EFJ legislature in Budapest. "The main nonsubjective of the fresh Polish government must be to end political interference in the public media and to guarantee that informational relations and current media content are free and independent of external pressures" – the draft resolution of the EFJ states. "A government in which the right of the public to know is respected is essential if democracy is to be preserved and disinformation, abroad manipulation of information and interference in elections are to be eliminated" stressed.

"We cannot accept the reasons for this resolution, it is biased and it presents the situation of the media in Poland in a very biased way," said Mariusz Pilis, Vice-President of the Association and delegate to the EFJ Congress. The SDP besides represented at the congress, as observers, SDP president Jolanta Hajdas and SDP Secretary-General Hubert Bekrycht.

Consequence

"The delegation of the Association of Polish Journalists consistently straightened out the inaccuracies and manipulations included in the project, but the expression of the European Federation legislature Journalists practically exclude discussion in the plenary area on the content of resolutions and their fresh editorial board. The EFJ voted this controversial resolution on Poland" – president Hajdasz wrote on the SDP portal adding that 120 delegates and observers, representing 57 unions and associations of journalists from 38 countries participated in the convention.

A certain success and – as the SDP authorities emphasize – a breakthrough against the situation in the Polish media day after the presidential election was the fact that the SDP's proposals were supported, as always, by representatives of 2 Ukrainian journalism organizations, but, in the event of an unfavourable resolution, more than 30 delegates – as never – abstained.

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