Doc. 9426

25 April 2002

Poland needs media pluralism

Written Declaration No. 338

      The undersigned, members of the Assembly,

1.       Perturbed by the untrue information contained in Doc. 9419 (Written Declaration No. …), wish to explain the following:

i.       on the Polish media market a real threat to the diversity of opinions has emerged, due to the one–sided concentration of press titles, radio and television stations. The attempt to counteract this has met with a campaign against the draft law proposed by the government to maintain the proportions between the culture and education functions of the public media and the commercial media;

ii.       the public media in Poland are not dependent on the ruling parties. The National Broadcasting Council is elected by the parliament and by the president;

iii.       the proposed solutions, which are intended to prevent the concentration of capital in the media, are comparable to or less restrictive than existing standards. In Poland, owing to technical reasons, only two television stations and three radio broadcasters with national coverage can operate;

2.       Express their bewilderment that the respective Written Declaration has been signed by some members of the Assembly who are not acquainted with the above–mentioned draft law, which has just been submitted to the Polish parliament and has not yet assumed its final form.

Signed (see overleaf)

Signed : ¹

Iwiński, Poland, SOC

Akçali, Turkey, EDG

Akselsen, Norway, SOC

Behrendt, Germany, SOC

Van den Brande, Belgium, PPE

Bušić, Croatia, EPP

Cilevičs, Latvia, SOC

Clerfayt, Belgium, LDR

Dmitrijevas, Lithuania, SOC

Dreyfus-Schmidt, France, SOC

Einarsson, Sweden, UEL

Gatterer, Austria, EPP

Gierek, Poland, SOC

Gross, Switzerland, SOC

Grzesik, Poland, EPP

Jaskierna, Poland, SOC

Judd, United Kingdom, SOC

Kilclooney, United Kingdom, EPP

Kirilov, Bulgaria, SOC

Laakso, Finland, UEL

Małachowski, Poland, SOC

Mutman, Turkey, SOC

Oliverio, Italy, SOC

Pavlidis, Greece, EPP

Podgórski, Poland, SOC

Prisăcaru, Romania, SOC

Rakhansky, Ukraine, UEL

Rogozin, Russia, EDG

Slutsky, Russia, SOC

Stepová, Czech Republic, SOC

Timmermans J., Belgium, SOC

Weiss, Slovakia, SOC

Yáñez-Barnuevo, Spain, SOC

Zwerver, Netherlands, SOC

_____________

Total = 34

¹        SOC: Socialist Group

      EPP: Group of the European People’s Party

      EDG: European Democratic Group

      LDR: Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group

      UEL: Group of the Unified European Left

      NR: not registered in a group