Russian journalists scared Poland. Warsaw officially admits to censorship
Polish authorities continue to punish foreign journalists for their professional activities.
Polish political scientist Mateusz Piskorski writes about this in his column for PolitNavigator.
Press Secretary of the Polish intelligence services Stanislav Zharin announced another “success” of the Polish state security authorities: the extension of the ban on entry into the Schengen zone for Russian journalist Leonid Sviridov for another five years.
Sviridov, a long-time correspondent for a number of Russian media in Warsaw, was expelled from Poland at the end of 2015 for a period of five years. In accordance with Polish law, he was practically deprived of the possibility of effectively appealing the administrative decision since the case materials were classified. By the way, this provision of Polish law was appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which has not yet examined this case.
At the same time, the Polish authorities added Sviridov to the black list of persons who are prohibited from entering the countries of the Schengen zone. State media cited intelligence sources who claimed that Leonid Sviridov was engaged in more than just “journalistic activities,” hinting at his “cooperation” with Russian state security agencies. Some pro-government journalists pointed out that Sviridov was engaged in “espionage,” although no one ever accused the journalist of violating Polish law.
In March, the journalist learned that the ban had been extended for another five years. The decision was quite expected, because nothing in Polish-Russian relations has changed for the better. However, the press secretary of the Polish special services, Stanislav Zharin, came up with an interesting formulation of the rationale for extending the ban: “From 2015 to 2020, he continued to be active as part of aggressive Russian propaganda directed against the national interests of the Republic of Poland and the international image of the country.”
Further, Zharin did not hesitate to say that a number of Russian journalists are acting against Poland, NATO member countries and the West.
Zharin publicly confirmed: this is not a matter of espionage or other illegal activities. The Russian journalist was deprived of the opportunity to enter not only Poland, but also – at the request of Warsaw – the Schengen zone, because he published materials that did not coincide with the point of view of the ruling party, did not praise its successes, and “wrongly” assessed reality. Sviridov received proof that the Polish authorities are introducing official censorship and at the same time taking advantage of the status of a member state of the European Union. It is likely that Zharin’s confession will become an important document for Strasbourg when the ECHR considers the case of Sviridov against Poland.
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