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« The Chill | Main | More Principles »

March 13, 2007

The Chill Continued

Not all journos here are finding the legal requirement to pledge that you never informed under communism so irksome as those prima donnas who claim that this is mere humiliation, since in any case the archives are about to be thrown open to journalists (and that, as mentioned before, means nearly everyone -- including you, Mr. Marcin Klecel, writer of a letter to today's Dziennik excoriating those journalists who are calling for a boycott, so get your humble-pencil out and sign your declaration of loyalty before you are forbidden from writing to the papers for ten years for failure to comply).

With Ewa Milewicz (whose opposition credentials are impeccable) taking the lead, a number of prominent journalists are calling for a boycott of the new loyalty law.

The loyal opposition (mainly Fakt, Dziennik and Rzeczpospolita hacks), however, are finding the presidential winds bracing. They have responded with an open letter of support for the poorly framed and spiteful law (why make people sign declarations when in any case the names of informers and suspected informers are soon to be published on the internet by the IPN?) The fearless fourth estate agents write: "It is with surprise that we learn of the announcement of journalists who refuse to submit a lustracja [verification] declaration. Unfortunately, this raises many dramatic questions about their past." So no sleazy innuendo, professional back-biting or opportunism there, then...

My favourite argument for signing up is that the law is the law. I look forward to outraged condemnations of the Augustow blockade (held in protest against delays in building an -- illegal under EU, i.e. Polish, law -- ring road throught the Rospuda valley) on the pages of Fakt and Dziennik in the very near future. Fakt called the assorted Greens opposed to the road "terrorists" on their front page a few weeks ago.

Posted by hgrodsk at March 13, 2007 03:57 PM

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Comments

According to a Washington Post article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/13/AR2007031300253.html those who file the statement have to stand down from their jobs until they are cleared.

That would mean that 700000 people would not be able to work until they were cleared. That process can take up to 15 years.

If this is the case, will the unemployment rolls grow by 700000 people.

Is the Post correct in saying that they must stand down?

Posted by: Gimp at March 14, 2007 08:39 AM

The new Vetting Act is a smokescreen designed to purge the left, which is certainly finding it hard to keep any sembelance of dignity aloft in the eyes of the public after the recent Olekszy Tapes scandal regarding the post-communist SLD and their tendency to get sticky fingers when it comes to big business. I have written a few more thoughts on the vetting act on my own blog. Good to find Three Monkey's Online cause I had the honour of meeting one of your men in Ireland. Great blog, keep on keeping on!

Posted by: Damo at March 31, 2007 03:38 PM

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