By Daniel Tilles
An unprecedented crisis is unfolding on Poland and the EU’s border with Belarus, yet journalists are banned from visiting the area. The world has therefore been left relying on information provided by the Belarusian regime and the Polish authorities. This is not only an affront to media freedom, it also does not serve Poland’s interests. It is time to let the reporters return.
If the media want to relate what is happening at the border, “nothing is stopping you and other journalists from going to Belarus and reporting from there”, deputy foreign minister Piotr Wawrzyk told a television interviewer this week.
His remarks – which he repeated later in the same programme – were meant to be in defence of the government’s decision to ban the media from the border amid an unprecedented migration crisis. But all they did was highlight how draconian the measures are.
He was effectively suggesting that Belarus – Europe’s most oppressive state – offers greater freedom than Poland for reporters to cover the crisis.
In September, Poland’s president – at the request of the government and with the approval of parliament – introduced a state of emergency along the country’s border with Belarus. That included a ban on non-resident civilians – including journalists, NGOs, and volunteer medics – from entering the area. The measures, which were initially in place for a month, were later extended until December.
As a result, media worldwide have been left to rely in large part on information about and images of the situation provided either by the Belarusian regime – which is orchestrating the crisis – or by the Polish authorities. Given that journalists report from wars and other conflict zones around the world, it is bizarre that they cannot provide on-the-ground coverage from inside an EU member state.
Posting a video of a Russian news report on the crisis, which alleged that Poland is teargassing children and beating migrants, Polish journalist Wojciech Bojanowski noted that “the ban on Polish and international media at the border means that [these claims] reach the world without verification”.
The blackout also leaves local residents in the dark. “Two hundred people broke into the country 3 km from our village and we have no idea what’s going on,” said Tom Diserens, a scientist based in Białowieża, close to the border, today. “We need journalists on the border.”
Zakaz pracy polskich i międzynarodowych mediów przy granicy powoduje, że w świat idzie bez weryfikacji to:
„- Polacy pryskali małe dzieci gazem
– bili migrantów i do nich strzelali
– śmigłowiec specjalnie latał nisko by gasić ogniska w obozie, przez co ludzie mają odmrożone nogi” pic.twitter.com/Dcz9CoGiwm— Wojciech Bojanowski (@BojanowskiW) November 9, 2021
According to the constitution, the state of emergency cannot then be extended again, meaning that journalists and others should be able to return to the border next month. However, this week two opposition lawmakers revealed that the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has been working on a law that would allow the government to introduce restrictions that would “bypass the constitution” and “resemble a state of emergency”.
Asked to respond to the claim, a PiS senator, Włodzimierz Bernacki, refused to comment directly but said he believed “formal and legal measures” should be taken to allow the current system that is “guaranteeing peace on the border” to be maintained.
One can argue over whether or not the state of emergency – the first ever declared in democratic Poland – is justified and effective (though clearly the idea that it is “guaranteeing peace” is hard to square with the recent scenes at the border).
Yet there is no good reason for it to include a complete ban on the media. The barring of journalists appears designed to suit the interests of the government – in obscuring the situation at the border and allowing it to control the narrative as much as possible – rather than those of Poland and its society.
After his suggestion that Polish journalists could go to Belarus if they want to report from the border, Wawrzyk then offered the government’s usual justification for the media ban: safety.
“If, God forbid, the [border] cordon was broken by immigrants, then those journalists would be in the danger zone,” he said. He also noted that members of the security services would have to be delegated to watch over the journalists, thereby “distracting officers from protecting the border”.
But the need for reliable, independent reporting on an unfolding and worsening humanitarian and geopolitical crisis far outweighs such concerns. Certainly the government does not need to allow anyone with a press card to wander freely in the border area. But it could easily provide accreditation and access to a limited number of journalists from a representative range of leading Polish and international media.
Foreign journalists are asking what's going on and the only source that you can give them is what's provided by the PL government. This doesn't look good at all
— Christopher Lash (@ChrisLashHist) November 9, 2021
There have been some noises coming from the authorities about softening the media ban. Today, the head of the president’s National Security Bureau, Paweł Soloch, said he thinks it would be “possible to find some formula for media presence” – but added the caveat: “provided that the media behave responsibly”.
Yet there are reasons to be sceptical. The prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said today that the government is “considering establishing a centre for journalists close to the border, where they would have quick access to information”.
That kind of solution sounds little different to the current situation, with journalists unable to visit the border itself and still relying on the authorities for information.
Poland's PM @MorawieckiM said during a presser with @eucopresident that the presence of media at the border intensifies provocations, as they are "susceptible to the influence of Belarusian and Russian fake news." For 2 months no journalists have been allowed into the border zone
— Monika Pronczuk (@MonikaPronczuk) November 10, 2021
The government’s track record also hardly inspires confidence. Since it came to power in 2015, Poland has fallen every since year in the Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders and currently sits in its lowest ever position.
It uses state broadcasters and friendly private media as mouthpieces for its messaging, while treating outlets that provide independent and critical coverage as hostile entities. It has often condemned them for relying on Belarusian sources to report on the border situation, arguing that they are spreading Minsk’s propaganda.
Yet, given the state of emergency on the Polish side of the border, it is no surprise that some outlets have had to rely on information emanating from Belarus. International media have been doing the same.
If the government really does want to prevent Belarus – and its Russian allies – from shaping the narrative, it must give journalists access to the border. It is in the interests of Poland and the world to know what is happening there.
Main image credit: GPK.GOV.BY/Tadeusz Giczan/Twitter (screenshot)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
