Let the media in!
The Polish parliament has been called into session amidst mounting attacks on our country’s frontier with Belarus as the authorities appeal to the political opposition for solidarity. Journalists from the EU and other countries are travelling to the scene to report on events as the unfold, as they did during similar crises in Greece, Italy, Spain, the Balkans and elsewhere.
„Information is a public good which ensures transparency. We must project those who work to this end – the media” Ursula von der Leyen said in her State of the Union speech in September 2021. Meanwhile the Polish government maintains a state of emergency at our frontier which bans media from the frontier arena and tells journalists to report on unfolding events from Belarussian territory.
Our Society of Journalists called on the Polish authorities on September 3, 2021 not to impose the ban on media in the frontier zone charging that if they did this they would show they want to „remove witnesses from the scene”. Also NGO-s and political opposition have demanded access of journalists to the Polish eastern border.
The immediate removal of the ban on a media presence at Poland’s eastern frontier is critical to establishing the credibility of the government’s efforts to defend our frontier which is also the external frontier of the European Union and of NATO.
Society of Journalists
Warsaw, November 9 2021
