The media are of great importance for polishness in the East

The Federation of Polish Media in the East is an initiative of the Polish media abroad who have just announced the establishment of the Federation. Its aims include endeavours to gain better financial support from the Republic of Poland and representation of these media in talks with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Two-day conference “Polish media in the East” has started today (24^th September). Its aim is to exchange information an experience among Polish media in the East, institutions in Poland and public organizations. The conference is organized for the leading Polish media in Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus and Ukraine.

During the conference the statement of Eastern media was read which informed about establishing the Federation of Polish Media in the East. The Federation is going to be “a serious and respected partner for talks with all the Polish institutions which deal with supporting Poles in the East”. The Federation’s main postulates include considering the support of Polish media abroad as a priority for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, re-establishing the state of funding of Polish media in the East to that of 2011, introducing a three-year system of funding the Polish media in the East, ensuring clarity of the announced contests.

“The expenditure on Polish media abroad is still rising. In 2012 it was about 4.7 million zloty, this year it is even more. Only in this year’s contest the Polish media abroad received the support of almost 4 million zloty. Additionally, the embassies have been supporting the media. Until now, 800 000 zloty had been donated by the embassies, with 600 000 having been appropriated for the Polish media in the East” – informed Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

According to the Deputy Minister, the Polish mass media are of great importance for polishness in the East.

“I’d like to assert that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is fully aware of this fact and we intend to support the development of the output reached until now” – declared the Deputy Minister.

Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz also said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expects the local media to consolidate. This, in her opinion, will bring about better working conditions.

The Deputy Minister said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “considers to introduce two-year cycles of projects’ qualification in the 2014 contest”.

The Deputy Minister’s words were commented by the representatives of Polish media. “We’ve lost recently (…) The government policy on our case is unclear (…) Why is it so bad if it’s so good. If they give media more funds why do we actually have less?” – asked Zygmunt Klonowski, publisher of “Kurier Wileński”.

The fact that the contests will be valid longer (2 years) was accepted with satisfaction by Zygmunt Klonowski. “That means some of our claims have been met”- assessed Klonowski. At the same time he pointed out that many magazines, including “Kurier”, have been facing financial problems in 2013.

Grzegorz Schetyna, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee assessed that it is important there is no political dissent when it comes to the Poles in the East and Polish media abroad. And Adam Lipiński (PiS), chairman of the Committee on Liaison with Poles Abroad insisted on making an analysis of changing the mechanism of financing Poles abroad. According to him, transferring the funds for support for the Poles abroad  from the Senate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “has greatly politicized this support”.

Media in the East receive the funds from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs via Poles abroad foundations, which attempt the contests every year. When a foundation cuts down the funds for a particular medium then the support is given directly by the embassies. In 2012, by the decision of the Sejm funds on the support for Poles abroad have been transferred to the Ministry of Foreign (from 1999 the funds were administered by the Senat).

The conference is organized by the Committee on Liaison with Poles Abroad together with the Freedom and Democracy Foundation and the Centre for East European Studies at University of Warsaw. Among the invited guest there are members of parliament, experts, representatives of national institutions, non-governmental organizations and national media.

Source: http://zw.lt/swiat/media-maja-wielkie-znaczenie-dla-polskosci-na-wschodzie/

Tłumaczenie by Elżbieta Szafarz w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Elżbieta Szafarz within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.