Poland / Europe & Central Asia

  
The TVN headquarters in Warsaw, pictured in September 2017. Poland's Internal Security Agency raided the home of one of the broadcaster's reporters over his undercover reporting. (AP/Czarek Sokolowski)

Gagging orders, legal action, and communist era laws used to try to ‘choke’ Polish press

Polish security agents enter the house of a prominent TV journalist over accusations that he propagated Nazi propaganda. Police summon a reporter over claims that he breached the privacy of the vice-head of the constitutional court. And Poland’s central bank files gagging orders against two papers, demanding they remove several articles about a corruption scandal…

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Protesters shout slogans during a counter-demonstration against a far-right rally in support of Poland's Holocaust bill in Warsaw, Poland on February 5, 2018. (Reuters/Agencja Gazeta/Dawid Zuchowicz)

Mission Journal: In Poland, some journalists fear worst is yet to come

Entering the historic site of the Gdansk shipyard, one cannot miss the wooden boards hanging over the famous gate No. 2. Handwritten in 1980, they display the list of demands of the strikers led by Lech Walesa, the founder of Solidarity, the independent trade union movement that pushed for social change in communist Poland. Number…

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Press freedom oppressors, clockwise from left: Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey, and Donald Trump of the U.S. (Reuters/AFP/AFP/AP)

In response to Trump’s fake news awards, CPJ announces Press Oppressors awards

Amid the public discourse of fake news and President Trump’s announcement via Twitter about his planned “fake news” awards ceremony, CPJ is recognizing world leaders who have gone out of their way to attack the press and undermine the norms that support freedom of the media. From an unparalleled fear of their critics and the…

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Harlem Désir, pictured at France's National Assembly in Paris in July 2016, says he is committed to standing up for journalists in his new role as OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. (AFP/Jacques Demarthon)

Q&A: Impunity and journalist safety are priority says new OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media plays a vital role that is valued by journalists and media freedom groups for its ability to speak out in defense of press freedom in participating states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

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CPJ Newsletter: January

Turkey releases jailed Iraqi journalist Following months of advocacy by VICE News, CPJ, and other groups, Iraqi journalist Mohammed Ismael Rasool was released from Turkish prison on January 5. Rasool was arrested in August along with his VICE News colleagues, Jake Hanrahan and Philip Pendlebury, while they were reporting from southeastern Diyarbakir province. The three…

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The headquarters of TVP in Warsaw. Poland's new media law moves toward giving the government greater powers over the public broadcaster. (Reuters/Slawomir Kaminski)

Will the EU’s actions speak louder than its words on Poland’s new media law?

On January 13, the European Commission–the so-called guardian of EU treaties–will meet in Brussels to debate a troubling law passed in Poland today that, according to reports, paves the way for the government to take control of public service TV and radio.

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The rubble of a school bombed by the Sudanese government in 2012. To set up a news agency to cover the conflict, humanitarian worker Ryan Boyette used crowdfunding. (AP/Ryan Boyette)

Journalists overcome obstacles through crowdfunding and determination

During South Africa’s Boer War, at the turn of the 20th century, a determined news organization relocated reporters, copy editors, and printing presses to the front line to ensure accurate reporting. In the Warsaw Ghetto, during World War II, a literal underground press, established to counter Nazi propaganda, required the nightly movement of cumbersome printing…

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EU underscores support of free expression, but slights access to information

A new document on freedom of expression and opinion, adopted May 12 by the 28 foreign ministers of the European Union, presses nearly all the right buttons. Drawing its inspiration from international human rights norms as well as from the EU’s treaties and its charter of fundamental rights, the document reaffirms the role of freedom…

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Putting Press Freedom at the Heart of Anti-Poverty Efforts

Economists and political scientists acknowledge that journalism is vital to development and democracy. By Robert Mahoney

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Polish journalist abducted in Syria

New York, July 25, 2013–A Polish freelance journalist was believed to have been abducted in northwest Syria on Wednesday, according to news reports citing local activists.

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