In the last period I was asked questions caused by the publication on the website of the Warsaw Branch of the SDP, that this branch was deprived of the chance to organise meetings at its headquarters, and the Management Board of the OW is to pay for the usage of conference rooms of the Journalist's home at Foksal. Before this publication, I was not contacted about it, and it appeared on the day of the held by the ZG SDP of the SDP's authoritative Gala of Journalism Competition, so I had no chance to explain this situation and to prevent the dissemination of false and incomplete information.
At the time of publication of the text on the Warsaw branch website, my gathering with the Management Board of the OW SDP was already planned, which I asked for on 6 June to explain the situation. On the OW SDP portal, however, it is written that the ZG SDP prohibits the admission and organisation of the activities of the OW in our common premises, and this is not true, so I want to explain it publicly.
This is simply a misunderstanding, the Main Board or even personally the Treasurer, do not charge fees for making the halls available to the Warsaw Branch. On the contrary, the branch, as so far, uses 2 large office spaces free of charge, does not even participate in the cost of maintaining the net infrastructure or electricity and heating the building. Therefore, PW enjoys privileges that no another SDP branches have, which themselves finance their premises, without saying anything about external entities utilizing the home of Journalists, which jointly and severally bear the costs of maintaining this building.
However, due to the horrendous amount of the fee for the usage of a perpetual building at 3/5 Foksal Street, which has been charged by the Association of Journalists of the Polish Capital City of Warsaw since 2017, and due to the current hard financial situation of the Association, all entities who, on a non-commercial basis, usage the area A (the main 1 with a professional sound strategy and the largest number of seats) are obliged to finance the operating costs of this area erstwhile they want to usage it. These include the cost of setting up the hall before and after the events, cleaning, sound during the event, or caring for the individual liable for beginning and closing the room. This is besides related to the particularity of the organisation of the work of the home of Journalists, in which present due to the request to minimize costs, these services mentioned by me are performed by external entities having permanent contracts with SDP and fixed hourly rates. Therefore, if an entity (including an SDP OW) wants to usage this largest, best equipped room, it must bear the minimum cost of operating it. These rules are the same for all tenants of the building, they do not origin any negative reactions, on the contrary, we met with knowing and acceptance. I hope this is simply a transitional situation, but for now – necessary.
It is besides not actual that OW SDP does not have a large area free of charge. erstwhile a period the branch organizes meetings within the SDP Historical Club. The Main Board shall bear all the costs associated with these meetings, including the speaker's fee, which is not available for the organisation of any another Association events, as the participants of the remaining meetings organised by the SDP participate in them free of charge. We besides finance another initiatives for OW, e.g. in the last week of June, the Management Board of OW SDP organized a choir charity concert, but all the operating costs of the hall were financed by the General Board and the branch did not pay anything. However, due to the essential financial discipline now, we cannot carry out statutory activities as intensively as we would like, hence the request to notify and limit specified events. I would besides like to stress that the rule of carrying organisational costs concerns only the largest room, from the another conference rooms The Warsaw branch of SDP may usage it free of charge whenever it requests it.
After the publication of the article on the OW SDP portal, I met with the Management Board of OW SDP and the Audit Committee of this branch, it was June 24. We have explained all the circumstances of specified events, and after the meeting, Branch president Zbigniew Rytel even wrote by email that he thanked me for the gathering and expressed his conviction that "by exchanging opinions and seeking solutions beneficial to all SDP members, we will be able to work harmoniously and effectively together." I share that view. I do not comment on the temperament of the publicist author of this text on the OW portal, speaking colloquially it carried it a bit, but I emphasize – no conflict in the case described between the OW SDP and the Management Board is possible.
Dr. Jolanta Hajdas,
President of the Association of Polish Journalists,
Director of SDP Press Freedom Monitoring Centre
