Two research interviews today: Ryszard Niemiec, senior editor of the regional daily Gazeta Krakowska, and Zbiegnew Bauer, former journalist and founding member/ current professor at the Pedagogical Academy Journalism School in Krakow. It’s hard to say how helpful the interviews will end up being for my project- because I was using a translator for both interviews, I think it’s easy for the essence of my questions to get lost, either that or the long delay makes it more tempting for interviewees to simply expound upon their favorite topic rather than answer my questions. Nonetheless, the interviews did give me some interesting insights into the world of the Polish media.
Mr. Niemiec definitely saw himself as a defender of Gazeta’s political independence. He told me that when he took over as editor in 1994, the party in power at the time (Democratic Opposition, or UW) was trying their best to use the paper as a tool for disseminating their propaganda. Mr. Niemiec said he made the conscious decision to “split the paper’s connection with the party,” which was a risky move at a time when close political ties gave newspapers a much-needed sense of security. From what I understood, this decision was very much in line with his philosophy about the role of editors and journalists in democratic Poland. According to Mr. Niemiec, the independence of a certain outlet is heavily dependent upon and editors’ “sense of political responsibility” and “not being a cohort” (presumably of any particular political party). I also found Mr. Niemiec’s comments about the paper’s coverage of the Pope and the Catholic Church particularly interesting. At first he insisted that it was case simply of “answering the demands of readers,” but later noted that a front-page story about the Pope or the Church was a “mark of prestige” for newspapers.
When I mentioned this last point to a Polish friend of mine, he had a fascinating anecdote to back it up. His older brother used to work as a reporter at Gazeta Krakowska, but quit his post after what he saw as a succession of editorial changes to his pieces in order to make them more “Church-friendly.” For example, the title of a profile he wrote about a patron of the arts and Krakow was changed from “Local Supporter of Culture Receives Prize” to “Prominent Friend of the Pope Receives Prize.” Although Mr. Niemiec insisted throughout our interview that the Church has no institutional mechanism for influencing the paper’s content, it’s clear that in reality the relationship is much more complex, and some sort of indirect pressure does in fact exist.
My second interview, with Professor Zbiegnew Bauer, felt more like a lesson in the history of Polish media than an actual interview, but it was helpful nonetheless. I found his comments about the inherent troubles of financing the public media to be especially indicative of the public’s skepticism of state-owned broadcast outlets: “Funding public broadcasting from the state budget means establishing a link between the media and the state, which is very dangerous.” He was also critical of the impact that foreign conglomerates have had on the Polish news media, particularly Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.: “The quality of the Plus-TV station has decreased dramatically since it was bought by Rupert Murdoch. He doesn’t care about quality, the most important thing is that he has a station in Eastern Europe so that he can begin to control that market.” One of his final comments really gave me some perspective about how much work still needs to be done to create the kind of news media environment in Poland that encourages democratic consolidation: “In Poland, we really need a public debate on the role of the media, economists should participate in this debate, but so far it has been dominated by artists and politicians, so nothing much happens.” From what I understand based on my research so far, economists aren't the only group being excluded from this debate.
