Krajowa Rada Radiofonii i Telewizji

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Krajowa Rada Radiofonii i Telewizji (KRRiT, The National Council of Radio Broadcasting and Television) is a Polish office that issues radio and television broadcast licences, ensures compliance with the law by public broadcasters, and indirectly controls state media. It is roughly equivalent to the Federal Communications Commission in USA.

KRRiT is an independent agency, with powers specified directly in the constitution, and members elected by the president and each of the chambers of the Parliament, for 6-year terms. It was created in early 1990s (1992), to manage the public media, hitherto tightly controlled by the state, and regulate the then emerging private broadcasting.

The direct constitutional empowerment, election of members for very long terms by various branches of the government, and requirement that the KRRiT members can't belong to a political party, give it very strong position, compared to similar agencies in other countries. It was considered crucial that the media be freed from political pressures.

While theoretically apolitical, members of the council were de facto appointed by the political parties, in rough proportion to their power. For a few years, because of the fragmentation of the Parliament, and ongoing conflict between the parliament and the president Lech Wałęsa, the council was in relative political balance, and so the public media weren't controlled by any particular party, while the private media were more concerned by economical expansion than politics.

However, after victory of the post-Communists in 1993 parliamentary elections, and of their candidate Aleksander Kwaśniewski in 1995 presidential elections, the council soon became dominated by people connected to the left. Even the right-wing 1997-2001 parliament couldn't reverse that, because of the long terms of KRRiT members, and presence of the presidential members. Having won next elections in 2001, post-Communists were able to stay in control of the public media for the second part of 1990s and early 2000s.

The post-Communist head of the public television, Robert Kwiatkowski, was widely accused of using it as the SLD's propaganda machine. Some of the early accusations include highly disproportional coverage of the SLD in 1997-2001, when SLD leader Leszek Miller was given more airtime than all members of the government combined (according to some calculations), airing a documentary claiming Lech Kaczyński's involvement in the FOZZ scandal just before the elections, later found to be completely baseless, and general bias in coverage of political news. KRRiT was also in constant conflict with private broadcasters, for example forbidding RMF FM to air local news.

The big problems however started only after the 2001 elections, when some members of the KRRiT were indicated in a conspiracy to get control over the private media (Gazeta Wyborcza, POLSAT), in falsifying the laws (lub czasopisma), and using their broadcast licencing power to exert political and economical pressure over local private broadcasters. These events, and other corruption scandals revealed soon afterwards, shattered the Polish political class. More these events in afera Rywina.

In 2004 Robert Kwiatkowski was replaced by a compromise candidate Jan Dworak as the head of the public television.

Many parties taking part in 2005 elections propose abandonment of the KRRiT.

Contents

[edit] Relevant parts of the Constitution of Poland

[edit] THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF RADIO BROADCASTING AND TELEVISION

[edit] Article 213
  1. The National Council of Radio Broadcasting and Television shall safeguard the freedom of speech, the right to information as well as safeguard the public interest regarding radio broadcasting and television.
  2. The National Council of Radio Broadcasting and Television shall issue regulations and, in individual cases, adopt resolutions.

[edit] Article 214
  1. The members of the National Council of Radio Broadcasting and Television shall be appointed by the Sejm, the Senate and the President of the Republic.
  2. A member of the National Council of Radio Broadcasting and Television shall not belong to a political party, a trade union or perform public activities incompatible with the dignity of his function.

[edit] Article 215
The principles for and mode of work of the National Council of Radio Broadcasting and Television, its organization and detailed principles for appointing its members, shall be specified by statute.

[edit] See also

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