Suchergebnisse

The Mapping Digital Media project examines the global opportunities and risks created by the transition from traditional to digital media. Covering 60 countries, the project examines how these changes affect the core democratic service that any media system should provide: news about political, economic, and social affairs.Digital switch-over of terrestrial broadcasting in Poland may still be almost a year away, but the lead-up and preparations to it have shed light on the most entrenched problems facing the country's public service broadcasters.This study of the impact of digitization on Polish media highlights the delays in digitization caused by political infighting; the lack of technical and financial assistance to ensure that the most vulnerable members of society benefit from digitization and new media; and the funding crisis afflicting public broadcasting. The political and economic position of the public broadcaster is critical in the digitization of broadcasting in Poland, both because of its continued—albeit diminishing—role in the media market, and because of its extensive involvement in the preparations for the switch-over.The authors of this report assess that the initiatives to inform the public about how digitization will affect them have been insufficient. Appropriate provisions should swiftly be put in place. Other major recommendations include a revision of spectrum allocation criteria to improve access for those "third way" broadcasters such as religious, educational, civil society or local government outlets, and the need for a durable solution to the public broadcasting funding crisis.

The LM case offered first proof of the expected disruptions to judicial cooperation between EU Member States and Poland due to its controversial judicial reforms. It concerned a European Arrest Warrant issued by a Polish court. In the judgment, the Court of Justice confirmed that the risk of an unfair trial in a Member State issuing a European Arrest Warrant may result in a non-surrender of the person sought. The Court did not however autonomously assess the state of judicial independence in Poland. Instead, it delegated this task to domestic courts executing Polish judicial decisions. Moreover, the Court held that cogent evidence of systemic breaches to judicial independence in a Member State issuing an European Arrest Warrant does not provide sufficient grounds to refuse its execution. The executing court must also carry out a concrete assessment of the individual situation of the person sought by the European Arrest Warrant. The executing court must determine whether that person runs the risk of undergoing an unfair trial in the issuing Member State due to personal circumstances. This commentary focuses on the potential impact of EU law and EU institutions on domestic judicial independence in the aftermath of the LM judgment. Firstly, it analyses the considerable difficulties entailed by the 'abstract' prong of the test prescribed by the Court. Domestic courts may have difficulty assessing foreign laws that affect the functioning of their counterparts in other Member States, which rather spoke in favour of a centralised review of domestic judicial independence by the Court of Justice. Secondly, the commentary argues that when courts are asked to rule on the execution of Polish judicial decisions, they should focus, within the abstract prong, on those elements of the Polish reforms that have an impact on rank-and-file judges, i.e. the new legal regime of disciplinary proceedings. Thirdly, the commentary argues that the Court's approach in LM to its own powers and responsibility contrasts with that in Associação Sindical dos Juízes Portugueses. In the latter case, settled a few months earlier, the Court had firmly asserted its mandate stemming from Article 19(1), para. 2, TEU to autonomously scrutinise domestic measures affecting judicial independence. In LM, on the contrary, the Court delegated the assessment of the Polish system entirely to domestic courts executing European Arrest Warrants. Moreover, ignoring the suggestion of the referring court, the Court upheld the second, 'concrete' prong of the double test transplanted from Aranyosi and Căldăraru, which may render excessively difficult the review of the risk of unfair trials in issuing Member States. The Court's reasoning suggests that it sought to avoid an automatic ban on surrenders to Poland so as not to pre-empt a decision by the European Council under Article 7(2) TEU. The latter depends, however, on political factors and may actually never be reached. As a consequence, domestic judicial independence may not receive a level of protection under EU law as strong as one might have expected in the aftermath of Associação Sindical dos Juízes Portugueses.