IPI Press Freedom Podcasts

On 15 October 2023, Poland held parliamentary elections which signaled the end of the eight years in power of the right-wing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party. In December, the PiS-led government was replaced by a liberal, opposition-led coalition.

Media freedom, and in particular the situation at Poland’s public service media, was one of the first issues tackled by the new government within days of taking office, as the cabinet led by Donald Tusk immediately sought to wrestle control of public media away from the outgoing PiS-led coalition. This included public television (TVP), Polish Radio as well as Poland’s national news agency PAP.

One of the first acts of the new government was to change the leadership of the public media by adopting a parliamentary resolution which declared the situation at public media as illegitimate and unconstitutional before calling on the authorities to take immediate action to restore the constitutional order and the “independence, objectivity and pluralism” of public media. In response, the minister of culture intervened  by replacing the members of the supervisory boards and senior management of the TVP, Polish Radio and PAP.

In doing so the government by-passed the National Media Council (NMC) set up in 2016 by PiS to nominate senior PSM management and supervisors.

This led to three weeks of protests led by PiS politicians and some TVP staff on the premises of Telewizia Polska and a political standoff between the government and Poland’s President, Andrzej Duda, who tried to block the changes by rejecting the 2024 budget for the public media.

Without funding the situation quickly became untenable and the then Minister of Culture,  Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, placed the public media into a state of liquidation, a legal status for entities without sufficient funds to operate, which enabled the ministry to continue to finance the PSM directly until new reforms can be agreed.

Nearly one year later, the legal uncertainty persists with public service media staff forced to work in a form of legal limbo without the security of guaranteed financing nor a management that has been appointed through an independent and transparent process.

Summary:

In this podcast episode, host Karol Łuczka speaks with Kamila Ceran, the editor-in-chief of Radio TOK FM, and with Robert Kwiatkowski, a member of the National Media Council in Poland, about the current state of public media in Poland. Łuczka, Ceran and Kwiatkowski discuss the significant changes in media freedom following the recent government transition, the ongoing political influence on public media, and the challenges of achieving true media independence. Ceran shares her insights on the politicization of media, the implications of funding, and the lack of shining examples of independent public media globally. Kwiatkowski shares insights on the role of the National Media Council and the future vision for public media, emphasizing the need for legal clarity and independence from political influence. The conversation concludes with reflections on the future of media in Poland and the complexities surrounding public funding.

Takeaways:

• There is an improvement in quality of reporting and objectivity.

Guests: Kamila Ceran, editor-in-chief of TOK FM and Robert Kwiatkowski, member of Poland's National Media Council

Producer and Host: Karol Łuczka, Eastern Europe Monitoring and Advocacy Officer at International Press Institute (IPI)

Editor: Javier Luque, head of digital communications at IPI

Other episodes in this series:

MFRR Podcast: Navigating Hungary’s new Sovereignty Protection Act

Related links:

More ambitious reform needed to secure media freedom in Poland

MFRR In Focus: How will the takeover of Polska Press in Poland impact the upcoming election?

IPI Medyada İnovasyon podcast serisinin 2. bölümü yayında!

Medyada İnovasyon serisinin bu bölümünde Uraz Kaspar’ın konuğu Aposto’nun kurucu ortağı Umutcan Savcı.

Yeni medya ekosistemi içindeki önemli girişimlerden Aposto’nun kuruluş dinamikleri ve zaman içinde geçirdiği dönüşümlerin etkilerini konuştuk. Yatırım süreçleri ve yatırımcıların yayınlara müdahaleleri olup olmadığını, teknolojik ve inovatif olarak Aposto’nun medya organizasyonu yapılanmasını incelediğimiz bölümde Umutcan; Aposto’nun editoryal işleyişi, gelir modelleri çeşitliliği ve kurum kültürleri hakkında da kapsamlı açıklamalar yaptı.

Bölümde değinilen konu başlıklarından bazılarını şöyle özetleyebiliriz:

• Bir teknoloji girişimi olarak doğan Aposto’nun medya organizasyonuna evrilme süreci

Savcı’nın yayında bahsettiği içerikler ise şunlardır:

• Conflicted Podcast

IPI Medyada İnovasyon podcast serisinin 1. bölümü yayında!

Medyada İnovasyon serisinin bu bölümünde Uraz Kaspar’ın konuğu Dijital Medya Uzmanı ve Yapay Gündem’in kurucusu Gülin Çavuş.

Çavuş’la Türkiye’deki yeni medya girişimlerinin rollerini, inovasyona yaklaşımlarını, gelir modellerini çeşitlendirme denemelerini, okur üzerindeki güven endeksli yaklaşım ve deneyimlerini konuştuk. Kariyer yolculuğundaki önemli noktaları paylaşan Çavuş, Teyit dönemi ve öncesindeki mesleki serüvenini, aldığı eğitimler ve kişisel girişimlerinin sonuçlarını aktardığı bölümde, yapay zeka odaklı bir e-posta bülteni olarak doğan ve sonrasında internet medyasına dönüşmekte olan Yapay Gündem’i de değerlendirdi.

Bölümde değinilen konu başlıklarından bazılarını şöyle özetleyebiliriz:

• Gülin Çavuş’un medya öncesi eğitimi ve kariyeri

Medyada İnovasyon; konvansiyonel ve yeni medya olarak son dönemlerde iyice ayrılan alanlardaki inovatif yaklaşım, girişim ve uygulamaların inovatif bakış açısı ve perspektifi geliştiren, uygulayan ve/ya tasarlayan konuklarla ele alınacağı bir podcast serisidir.

Seriyi hazırlayan Uraz Kaspar, 2011 yılından bugüne Yeditepe Üniversitesi bünyesinde öğretim görevlisi olarak çalışmaya devam etmekte olup, akademik müfredata Podcast ve Ses Yayıncılığı’nın eklenmesini sağlamıştır. 2019 yılında kurucu ortaklarından olduğu Podfresh ile 2024’te yollarını ayıran Kaspar, medya alanındaki çalışmalarına Olmaz Media adı altında Amerika ve Türkiye’de devam etmektedir. Uluslararası Basın Enstitüsü (IPI), Uluslararası Gazeteciler Federasyonu (IFJ) ve Türkiye Gazeteciler Sendikası (TGS) üyesi olan Kaspar, Sanat ve Kültür Yönetimi için Çağdaş Teoriler ve Uygulamalar kitabının da ortak yazarları arasındadır.

On August 9, Belarus commemorates the sad anniversary of the 2020 presidential elections, which resulted in the fraudulent reelection of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. In the aftermath of the elections, Belarus experienced unprecedented levels of repression at the hands of the Lukashenko regime’s security services, with part of this violence targeting independent media and journalists.

In July, Belarus also marked the 30th anniversary of Lukashenko’s first election, in 1994. This anniversary served as a reminder of the fact that the Belarusian dictator has now been in power for over 30 years, with no end in sight to the repression against media and civil society carried out by authorities under his leadership over the past three decades.

While the mass protest movement in Belarus, in 2020 and 2021, took many by surprise at the time, and was widely reported on by European media, this attention almost completely faded in the past years, especially following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

However, Belarusian media, and civil society at large, continue to suffer from massive repression by local authorities. With nearly 40 journalists currently in prison according to monitoring by the Belarusian Association of Journalists, an independent trade union in exile, the scale of repression in Belarus is immense.

Moreover, the repression continues to escalate, with more and more independent media regularly  designated as “extremist” and banned in Belarus. Most worryingly, these designations foresee prison terms not only for journalists, but also for regular Belarusians who engage with independent media content.

In this context, despair could seem natural for independent Belarusian journalists, most of whom are in exile in neighboring Poland and Lithuania, as well as in Georgia and other European countries. However, these journalists continue their work despite obvious difficulties, managing to keep audiences despite access blocks and other bans in Belarus.

To discuss the present and future of Belarus and its independent journalists, IPI spoke to Natalia Radzina, the editor-in-chief of Charter’97, one of Belarus’s oldest and most popular online independent media outlets.

Guest: Natalia Radzina, Editor-in-Chief of Charter’97.

Producer and Host: Karol Łuczka, Eastern Europe Advocacy and Monitoring Officer at IPI.

Voice-over: Beatrice Choccioli, Europe Advocacy Officer at IPI.

Editor: Javier Luque, Head of Digital Communications at IPI.

Other episodes in this series:

Press freedom in peril: navigating elections and political turmoil in Poland, Slovakia and Bulgaria

Related links:

Belarus: IPI condemns prison sentences for two more journalists

As politics in Eastern Europe becomes increasingly volatile during the super election year, press freedom is at grave risk. Throughout the pre- and post-election periods, independent media face numerous threats, including verbal and physical assaults, cyber attacks, smear campaigns, and vexatious lawsuits.

As the dust settles on the European Parliament elections, and Central and Eastern Europe gears up for more elections on local and national levels, we analyze the state of press freedom in Poland, Slovakia and Bulgaria with the leading journalists from these countries and members of IPI’s Central Europe Independent Media Network. We also delve into the media environments in the pre- and post-election periods and examine the major challenges journalists face when covering elections. 

Guests: Patrycja Maciejewicz, head of Business Desk at Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland

  Peter Hanak,  journalist at Aktuality, Slovakia 

              Angel Petrov, international correspondent at Dnevnik, Bulgaria 

Producer and Host: Teona Sekhniashvili, Europe Network and Press Freedom        

              Coordinator at International Press Institute (IPI)

Editor: Javier Luque, Head of Digital Communications at International Press Institute (IPI)

Earth Day reflections: Italy’s climate reporting dilemma

Media Freedom in Focus: Untangling media capture in Greece

MFRR in Focus: Aftermath of Finland’s unprecedented state secrets conviction

MFRR in Focus: Opposition wins Poland election

MFRR In Focus: Media in Slovakia brace for populist PM’s return

MFRR Podcast: Navigating Hungary’s new Sovereignty Protection Act

IPI’s Central Europe Independent Media Network

IPI condemns shooting of Slovak PM, expresses concerns over backlash against media

Poland: Recommendations for democratic reform for press freedom and public media

Media freedom groups call on Slovakia’s Parliament to reject public broadcasting bill

Bulgaria Minister urged to drop defamation lawsuit

As our planet grapples with the devastating effects of climate change, the indispensable role of environmental journalism becomes increasingly apparent. Yet, the right to cover environmental issues remains under siege, not least in Italy:

• In the last months of 2023, articles dedicated to the climate crisis in the main Italian newspapers decreased compared to the previous months. 

How can journalists inform the public effectively when the fossil fuel industry has a growing influence on the media platforms? On Earth Day, we confront this question head-on.

• Barbara Trionfi, former Executive Director at IPI and current Fellow, is the author of the report Climate and Environmental journalism under fire. 

Producer and Host: Beatrice Chioccioli, Europe Advocacy Officer at the International Press Institute (IPI)

Editor: Javier Luque, Head of Digital Communications at IPI

• Media Freedom in Focus: Untangling media capture in Greece

• New IPI report reveals safety crisis faced by climate and environmental journalists

This podcast series is part of the Media Freedom in Focus project, sponsored by Media Freedom Rapid Response(MFRR), which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries. The MFRR is organized by a consortium led by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) including ARTICLE 19 Europe, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Free Press Unlimited (FPU), the International Press Institute (IPI) and Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT).

Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison. For almost one year now, this has been the home of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is being held on charges of espionage.

Lefortovo is known as one of the most secret prisons in Russia. It is notorious as a place of arrest for high-level personalities detained by Russian authorities on politically motivated charges. Prisoners sent there are typically investigated by the FSB, one of Russia’s most powerful secret services.

In just one moment in March 2023, Evan’s life changed from that of an active reporter to that of a simple prisoner at Lefortovo. One year later, Russian investigators have still produced no proof justifying the charges against him. Instead, they have regularly extended Evan’s pre-trial detention. If convicted, he faces between 10 and 20 years in prison.

While a prisoner exchange with the United States was on the table since Evan was first arrested, the prospect of his release still seems further away than ever.

The IPI global network continues to advocate for his release. Together with other press freedom groups and international media, we demanded that Russian authorities set Evan free, sent him a letter to Lefortovo, spoke to his friends and continuously kept his case at the forefront of our activities by highlighting any updates in the criminal case opened against him.

In this new episode of The Press Freedom Files, published to mark the one-year anniversary of Evan’s arrest, we speak to Polina Ivanova, a correspondent for FT who covers Russia, Ukraine, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Together with Gershkovich, she covered the region for several years from Moscow, prior to his arrest.

In a moving testimony, Polina recounts Evan’s work, his life, and what it was like to see him behind bars over the past year.

Guests: Polina Ivanova, Russia, Ukraine, Caucasus and Central Asia correspondent at FT.

Producer and Host: Karol Łuczka, Eastern Europe Advocacy and Monitoring Officer at IPI.

Editor: Javier Luque, Head of Digital Communications at IPI.

Latest episode of Media Freedom In Focus podcast examines findings of new report on threats to independent media in Greece

Independent journalism and watchdog reporting in Greece faces challenges from many sides.

In the last few years, the country has experienced the broad-daylight murder of a crime reporter, multiple threats to the safety of journalists, a sprawling surveillance and spyware scandal and numerous vexatious lawsuits and legal threats against media and journalists, with detrimental consequences for Greek democracy.

However, these immediate challenges sit atop deeper historical and systemic issues including a problematic landscape for independent journalism, weak media pluralism, prolonged economic threats to media viability, entrenched capture of private media by powerful families and owners, and low levels of trust in media.

Greece suffers, in short, from media capture.

A new report, published on 30 January, looks in detail at this situation in Greece for the first time, with damning conclusions about the scale of media capture in Greece, and its impact on the country’s democracy.

Guests: Danai Maragoudaki, a journalist at Greek investigative media outlet Solomon, who also works for The Manifold

Producer and Host: Jamie Wiseman, Europe Advocacy Officer at International Press Institute (IPI)

Editor: Javier Luque, Head of Digital Communications at IPI

Other episodes in this series:

Navigating Hungary’s Sovereignty Protection Act - Media Freedom In Focus

Under illegal surveillance – the Greek ‘Predatorgate’ – Media Freedom In Focus

Related links:

New report examines media capture in Greece

Report: Stemming the tide of Greek media freedom decline

Sunucu: Cansu Çamlıbel | Konuk: Handan Uslu

IPI Özgür Sohbetler: Türkiye podcast serisinin 44. bölümü yayında!

IPI Özgür Sohbetler’in yeni bölümünde gazeteci Cansu Çamlıbel’in konuğu siyasi mikro hedefleme, algoritmik manipülasyon ve dijital dirençlilik gibi alanlarda faaliyet gösteren Gözlemevi İnternet ve Toplum Araştırmaları Merkezi’nin kurucusu Handan Uslu’ydu.

Uslu; teknoloji şirketlerinin kullandığı algoritmaların dünyanın bilgi ekosistemini oluşturduğunu, Gözlemevi’nin bu firmaların özellikle içerik moderasyonu konusunda hesap verebilirlikten uzak olmasının doğurduğu ihtiyaç üzerine kurulduğunu ve merkez olarak kamuoyunun maruz kaldığı manipülasyon ve zararı ortaya koyan araştırmalar yürüttüklerini aktarıyor.

“Uyku düzeninizden ruh halinize, alışveriş alışkanlıklarınızdan siyasi eğiliminize kadar sizi sizden çok daha iyi tanıyorlar” şeklinde tanımladığı teknoloji şirketlerine hesap sorma yönünde net kriterler belirlemek gerektiğine dikkat çeken Uslu, bunu şöyle örnekliyor ve açıklıyor: “Veriyi işlerken, bu veriyi birine gönderirken ya da bu veri için bir hedefleme yaparken bunun için kullanıcının rızasını almak; kullanıcıyı (özellikle çocukları) +18 şiddet içeren içeriklerden korumak; ifade özgürlüğünü korumak ve nefret söylemini engellemek arasında iyi bir denge kurmak ve de bunun için gerekli operasyonları hayata geçirmek. Bu açıdan baktığımızda, yani beklentilerimizi çok daha net ve basit tutup bu yönde veri oluşturduğumuzda aslında bu firmaların politika ve uygulamalarını etkilemek mümkün.”

Sohbette değinilen konu başlıklarından bazılarını şöyle özetleyebiliriz:

• Gözlemevi’nin kuruluş amacı ve faaliyet alanları

Bu kayıt, Avrupa Birliğinin (AB) maddi desteği ile hazırlanmıştır. İçerik tamamıyla Uluslararası Basın Enstitüsü (IPI) sorumluluğu altındadır ve Avrupa Birliğinin görüşlerini yansıtmak zorunda değildir.