Council of Europe chief asks Poland’s president not to sign contested public broadcasting law, citing ‘alert’ from AEJ and other journalists’ organisations
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
In a rare top-level public intervention the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland, has written
a letter to Poland’s President, Andzej Duda, asking him to refrain from signing
into law the controversial public service media legislation just
adopted by the Sejm, and to open a dialogue focusing on Poland’s
commitments to freedom of expression under the European Convention on
Human Rights. Mr Jagland’s letter cites the Alert submitted to the
Council of Europe’s ‘Platform to promote the protection of journalists
and the safety of journalists’ by the AEJ, Article 19, Committee to
Protect Journalists, the European Federation and International Federation of Journalists, Index on Censorship and Reporters Without Borders.
The Alert, published on 4 January, expressed strong objections from the 7
journalists’ and freedom of expression associations to the proposed
removal of guarantees of the independence of public TV and radio
services in Poland, and called on the ruling Law and Justice party to
abandon the legislation. President Duda had been widely expected to sign
the PSM legislation into law without delay. But over the past several
days Mr Duda has received messages of concern about the proposed law
from the European Broadcasting Union, the European Commission, the
European Parliament and the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human
Rights, in addition to the personal letter sent by the Secretary-General
of the Council Europe.
Read the full text of Mr Jagland’s Letter here.
Read the Council of Europe ‘Platform’ Alert about the Polish public service media law and related texts here.