Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage has prepared an amendment the media law obliging all web sites register with the government. 

The bill would define all internet sites that update or provide information on a regular basis as newspapers or weeklies, mandating registration with the government. If someone starts up a website without registration, a fine will be imposed. 

Two men from the southern city of Bielsko Biala have already faced a fine of 3,000 zloty (663 euro) under the bill for their website www.bielsko.biala.pl. The men claim that the website started as a portal to promote local businesses and provide cinema times. When Marcin Tomana and his partner decided to start providing news, they registered with the government.  

On 2 June, local courts in Bielsko Biala imposed a fine on the two men, claiming that they provided information services before they were registered. 

The decision set a precedent that the Ministry of Culture now seeks to clear up, providing a legal basis for what is or is not considered a daily or weekly news information service. Immediately, reactions to the Ministry’s proposal cropped up in the media. 

“My students run an internet service promoting natural cosmetics. I am afraid that they too will have to register,” states Professor Ewa Nowinska from Jagiellonian University in Krakow. “The amendment only mandates registration for press publications, without precisely stating what such a publication is,” added Nowinska. 

No such law exists in any other European country and legal analysts are unsure as to why Polish authorities seek to levy such a regulation. 

“It is hard for me to find a reason as to why the Ministry would want to go to war with web users. The proposed regulation does not exist in any country in Europe,” states Dr. Michal Zaremba from the University of Warsaw.  

“This calls into question two values: from the one side freedom of speech and from the other, protecting third parties, adds Nowinska, claiming that the authors of the amendment seek to provide internet users with as much information as possible about their sources of information: one can check records of registration to see if a source is legitimate. 

In a reaction published later Wednesday morning, Minister of Culture Bogdan Zdrojewski stated that the media is creating hype over nothing. 

“Whoever wrote the article [in Rzeczpospolita] did not read the amendment,” stated Zdrojewski, adding that the Ministry of Culture does not seek to include blogs in the regulation. “Bloggers can sleep peacefully,” stated the minister. (mmj/pg)