Electronic Resource Centre for Human Rights Education:
"Human rights education for the media: the Polish example"

In many Central and East European countries, the media lack adequate practical knowledge of human rights and the rule of law. This is caused by an absence of a tradition regarding the principles of the rule of law - one which would be rooted and internalized by society (that is, also by the media). Moreover, there is a specific lack of knowledge in human rights issues. As a consequence, this results in an inability to discern examples, in everyday situations, of the implementation (or non-implementation) of rules relating to the rule of law and human rights. The general rules are accepted in principle. Yet on many occasions, the everyday practices of the media belie their declarations. Worse still, journalists themselves seem to be unable to notice this.

Another specific feature of the Central and East European countries under transformation is, among other things, that there is no feedback between the activities of individual public agencies and between individual socio-professional groups. This, in turn, results in a situation where the press (and other media) exist `for themselves', so to say; the response to their publications being but slight. Judicial decisions (including a considerable proportion of recent ones which are most interesting and progressive) simply remain unknown to the broader public. The press finds them too difficult, and their explanation to the public proves to be beyond the journalists' abilities. In this way, one can hardly speak of education `towards civil society'.

In order to make at least some improvement on this situation, the Helsinki Foundation in Warsaw has, since 1993, been implementing a project entitled `Human Rights and the Media' sponsored by the German Marshall Fund. Hereunder, its aims are described.

The project is not exactly aimed at `training' (nobody likes to be `instructed') but rather at raising the participants' self-estimation, that is at generally developing rather than technical educational activities. It embraces a considerable amount of lectures in applied philosophy and sociology (reception and appraisal of administration of justice in society, causes of misunderstandings and falsehoods); contacts between the media and law enforcement agencies; and lectures delivered by prominent persons.

Participants are not told what to do; instead, by presenting problems, contradictions, and different approaches to one and the same issue, they are made aware of stereotypes in journalists' thinking and are thus indirectly influenced and persuaded to broaden their horizons. An example: the point is not to organize a series of lectures on individual human rights but rather to demonstrate the way in which deficient knowledge must necessarily influence the interpretation of various problems covered by the press.

A bulletin of about 800 words is published on a weekly basis under the title `Do You Know That...' and it deals with issues concerning human rights in specific and the legal and democratic culture in general. In principle, the authors are members of the team that implements the project. The subjects are approached with great care, in a simple and possibly even witty form which is attractive to journalists: the texts are written with humor and are somewhat `gossipy' (whenever the actual subject-matter permits this approach). They concern:

• information about individual human rights and evidence of their operation (or non-operation) in situations of Polish everyday life. Special attention is devoted to the freedom of speech and the flow of information;

• mistakes, `mishaps', and misunderstandings ocurring in the press, on tele-vision, and in politicians' statements which demonstrate that their authors offend human rights because of a failure to understand their true sense;

• correction of widespread mistakes (e.g. the Polish media regularly confuse the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg with the Hague Tribunal and the European Tribunal in Luxembourg or they confuse basic United Nations institutions with each other etc.). This is a specific `camera obscura' in human rights and the rule of law;

• highlighting cases of linguistic stigmatization in the Polish media. This concerns the approach in their publications to minorities, the hiv virus-carriers etc. The language of the Polish press provides many examples comparable to, for example, calling black Americans `niggers' in the United States media. In the bulletin, we strive to point out such cases;

• information about some interesting decisions of the Constitutional Tribunal, the Highest Administrative Court, and Supreme Court - particularly those which indicate the advancing constitutionalization of the judges' approach, their pro-civil attitude, a stress on categories of the rule of law, and the presence of human rights issues in judicial decisions.

So far, over 100 issues of the bulletin have appeared. The circulation is over 400 copies, distributed free not only to press, radio, and television journalists but also to some courts (the Highest Administrative Court included), to representatives of the judiciary, and to speakers on human rights trained by the Helsinki Foundation within its other educational projects. Two annual cumulative sets of the bulletin (with several different indexes so as to make them a specific guide) have been published as booklets (600 copies) and have also been distributed among journalists and judges.

The bulletin includes a characteristic concluding note: `read it if you like; quote it if you need to; mention your source if you feel like it'. We believe that this particular approach contributes to the bulletin's popularity and actual use. Its materials are very often quoted in the press, reproduced without quotation.

One of the main objectives of the project, pursued indirectly and requiring the most prolonged work, is to bring legal circles (the judiciary in particular) and the media closer to each other. The two communities are rather mistrustful of each other.

In order to enhance their contact, two-day meetings of press, radio and television journalists and growing groups of the judiciary are organized on a bimonthly basis. The meetings are attended by about 40 to 60 persons, mostly from the provincial media, which are less blasé than the central press and therefore more eager to attend. The form of the meeting is that of a `salon' (the word `training' is never even mentioned as it would wreck the whole undertaking: nobody likes to be `trained'). Discussed are issues from the spheres of legal culture, constitutionalism, the applied theory of media communication, linguistics, and sociology.

The `salon' aims to overcome the mistrust between both groups. In the longer term it will help the media to discuss legal problems sensibly. It will also help the courts to treat the media as a valuable partner and helper in activities which will form the foundations of the rule of law. What is needed, however, is that the media should become aware of the essence of the judges' work; that they should know what to praise and what to criticize in the work of the courts, what independence of the judiciary actually is and what consequences it has.

It is important to engage first-class specialists as lecturers (professors of law, linguistics and press research; judges of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Tribunal); such persons should also have specific performing talents. The presentations should be free from academic routinism and involve the active participation of the audience. It is also possible to provide a dialogue presentation (for example, a dialogue on objectors between a pro-state judge of the Supreme Court's Military Division and a representative of the Helsinki Committee).

The main purpose of the meetings is to demonstrate that differences of opinions and approaches are natural in a democratic society, that there is no single opinion which would be `solely right'; the aim being to develop the participants' respect for different opinions and approaches. The meetings are designed to demonstrate that difficult problems of a democratic society cannot be solved by easy and simple populist formulas (which the press normally tends to demand). The present author (who conducts the meetings) follows the motto that `gray is beautiful and has many different shades'.

Within the project, a database has been compiled which includes press extracts relating to human rights and legal culture. The base is a point of departure for the bulletin and for preparing the presentations at the `salons'. The head of the project (the present author) also has a regular column in a top weekly `Polityka' where she publishes about 200 words a week on subjects related to legal culture. The above-mentioned database also serves as the basis for this activity.

The team implementing the project has very good relations with the Supreme Court, the Chief Administrative Court, and Constitutional Tribunal. What favours the success of the project's formula is the fact that its head is a professor of law (the first Polish Ombudsman in the years 1988-1992), a popular person who, to some extent, also attractive to the media and enjoys considerable authority in the sphere of the law. This situation has a number of advantages: first, it contributes to a specific notoriety which makes people eager to attend the meetings; second, it enables high-level and popular lecturers to be engaged; third, it also enables easy contacts with various vips; and fourth, it ensures the adequately high professional standard of the bulletin. Nothing can be worse for the promotion of human rights and the rule of law than a lack of professionalism, compensated by a noisily enthusiastic approach to the subject. In general, the project is based largely on its authors' own conception.

Points of importance in the course of implementing the project:

• regular and, to some extent, personal contacts should be maintained with persons invited to attend the meetings and recipients of the bulletin;

• within the means and organizational abilities at our disposal, it is advisable to strive for the group's consolidation through the distribution of interesting materials;

• the participants should under no circumstances be under the impression that they are being `trained' or indoctrinated;

• the media are often blasé and easily bored: the form and subjects should be made attractive;

• the media are lazy: the distributed materials should be easily adaptable for journalists.

Ms. Ewa Letowska is leader of the programme on human rights and the media of the Helsinki Foundation on Human Rights, member of the Helsinki Committee in Poland, and the first Ombudsman in Poland.

(*) This chapter is taken from the Handbook for Helsinki Committee: A Guide for Monitoring and Promoting Human Rights, and NGO Management. Vienna: International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, 1995. Reprinted with permission.

© International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights

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Electronic Resource Centre for Human Rights Education:
"Human rights education for the media: the Polish example"