Polish president signs bill putting state media under government control

[bobthedrummer]

Source: The Guardian

Senior figures in public radio and TV will be appointed and sacked by treasury minister under new law, which has been condemned by rights groups

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/07/poland-president-signs-bill-putting-state-media-under-government-control

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Aren't you glad we live in the land of the free press, and freedom

It's Information Operations 24/7 people.

[reddread]

1. land of the free from information

[bobthedrummer]

3. Information Operations/IO, reddread, but commercials are fine too

Here's a thread about IO for everyone, especially English readers in Warsaw and NYC

Chapter 37 of Michael Hastings book "The Operators"...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016130893

[reddread]

5. yeah, but now its seen as ostensibly legal

im still bent out of shape over earlier transgressions.
Hopefully historians get a clear picture of those responsible
for decades of censorship and misinformation.
assuming survival.

[jtuck004]

2. Avoid the negative press. Put it under control of a few wealthy people and accomplish the same thing

Works for us.

[bobthedrummer]

4. Yep.

[bobthedrummer]

6. Theoretically the airwaves belong to we, the people and an informed citizen is a requirement of demo

cracy.

PBS and NPR in Gauleiter WALKER's Wisconsin, along with the RW controlled MSM are a BALL OF CONFUSION by design.

[vkkv]

7. Yikes!

That sounds very TRUMP-ISH !!!

[pampango]

8. Preventing the return of Europe's authoritarian right (Hungary, now Poland)

So now it’s Poland. For the last five years Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban has dismantled democratic checks and balances and declared the end of the liberal aspect of liberal democracy. Being rammed through parliament in no time, the attack of Poland’s Law and Justice party on the country’s Constitutional Court and media bears the hallmarks of an Orban manoeuvre, but it is even more breath-taking, coming within weeks of being elected with 38 percent of votes.

After the Second World War the right wing in Europe broke its link with authoritarian rule, paving the way for stable democratic pluralism in Europe. Hungary’s Fidesz and the Polish Law and Justice party are now re-establishing the link.

In the EU a democracy problem in one member state is a democracy problem for all, because member states have votes in legislating for the whole Union. Democratic shortcomings in one member state contaminate the entire system, which is built on the premise of including only functioning democracies. This is why the main remedy to an erosion of democracy in a member state is the suspension of voting rights of that member state in the EU Council according to article 7 of the EU Treaty.

Poland’s Law and Justice party, in its outright refusal to accept a judgment of the country’s highest court and its transparent attempt to paralyse it, has provided a smoking gun that proves that domestic rule of law does not work any more. When joining the EU, states made a clear choice for pluralistic democracy. They should not be allowed to go back on that obligation.

https://euobserver.com/opinion/131705

[Igel]

9. Very venezolano of them.

Televizija polska gets, wiki tells me, about 30% of the viewing audience, so it's not commensurate with something like executive control over PBS in the US. TP is the public Polish tv media complex.

Don't know radio stats, can't find them quickly enough. But certainly more important than NPR.

[alfredo]

10. I have a friend in Poland. He is thinking of bugging out.

[Pjmask]

11. Not good

For free speech.

[bobthedrummer]

12. Welcome to Democratic Underground, Pjmask!

Chapter 21-Omaha
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016139460