Protests in Poland as Ruling Party Restricts Right to Information

Serious restrictions on the Right to Information provoked protests of citizens and the parliamentary opposition in Poland. They caused one of the biggest political crises in the recent years.

The Chairman of the lower chamber of the Polish Parliament (Sejm) has announced radical changes in the rules on functioning of journalists in the Parliament. The presented changes repeal provisions of the Polish Constitution that guarantee the Right to Information.

According to art. 61 p. 2 of the 1997 Constitution:

“The right to obtain information shall ensure access to documents and entry to sittings of collective organs of public authority formed by universal elections, with the opportunity to make sound and visual recordings.”

The proposal which is due to be binding by the 1st of January explicitly banned journalists from the right to make sound and visual recordings at the plenary and committees sessions. Thanks to this right, we had, for example, the chance to catch MPs red-handed when they voted with two hands. Cameras which are installed in the plenary and committees halls cover only part of the entire space. Without recordings made by the media and citizens, important part of public officials’ activities are hidden in the dark.

Protests erupted after one of the opposition MP was excluded from the plenary session after opposing the new rules of the media operation in the Parliament. Later, the parliamentary majority has moved to a smaller hall for further proceedings including the voting on the state budget for 2017. Representatives of the opposition were not allowed to join the session. Neither were journalists.

Till late Friday night, citizens tried to block exits from the building not to let Law and Justice MPs out of the Parliament building. Further demonstrations were taking place during the whole day. On Saturday morning the Chairman of the Sejm has decided not to let journalists to the premises at all.

The restrictions directed towards the media activities in the Parliament are in fact an attack on citizen and human right to information. In the last 12 months the governing party has destroyed the check and balance principle by blocking the Constitutional Tribunal or has targeted the public media which were later used to attack NGOs. The attempt to restrict the Right to Information is again another example of shrinking civic space in Poland and another example of the government who is afraid of being transparent and open to the civic control.