The Federation of Poles in Great Britain filed a complaint against the Daily Mail for purposely defaming immigrants, especially Poles resident in the UK.
Agnieszka Bielawska reports
The largest organisation of Poles resident abroad accused the daily of printing articles, which give rise to negative emotions and tensions between the new EU immigrants and local communities. The organisation claims such articles are a conscious action aiming to discredit the immigrants, especially Poles and their families. The complaint had been filed to the Press Complaint Commission. Jan Mokrzycki, chairperson of the Federation of Poles explains:
'It was the headlines which were using emotive anti-Polish sentiments. Poles appeared to be unable to please the Daily Mail whatever they did. You get a headline "Poles flood into England" using the emotive word, and then you get "Poles desert England" again using an emotive word 'desert'. If they felt there were too many Poles in England, which they are entitled to feel, they should express pleasure saying that Poles have decided to go home. Poles are not totally innocent, no society is totally innocent, and if Pole does something wrong then he or she should be castigated. When you get a series of articles and none of the headlines shed a positive light, but all shed a negative light by using this sort of terminology even if the article is balanced then there is a certain trend. We detected what we perceive a negative and anti-Polish trend.'
Jan Mokrzycki adds that the situation has been going on for months and it is not a question of two or three headlines used. The complaint quotes some 50 headlines all shedding an anti- Polish light. The Daily Mail, says Jan Mokrzycki, has so far refused to take a stand on the matter and gave no response to the Federation:
‘No, nothing in fact. I was talking to a BBC reporter earlier on, she tried to contact the Daily Mail, and she could not get any reaction from the Daily Mail itself. It is up to the Press Complaints Commission to decide whether there is any ground for complaint and if so, they will take it up.'
George Matlock, from Radio Orla, a Polish radio station catering for the needs of the Polish community in the UK and Ireland, says that the station systematically looks at British media coverage of the Polish community. Articles concerning Poles appear quite often in British press says George Matlock and generally are quite balanced:
'From the past year that we've been doing this programme, the coverage that has been given to Poles has been relatively balanced. Certainly, we would not think that the general media are in some way with any kind of agenda to discredit or demean the Polish community. I do know that the Daily Mail and the Daily Express are sometimes seen as having a certain bias against minority groups, not necessarily just the Polish community. But then again Daily Mail has written some very positive stories about Poles as well. There are now some 1 million Poles in the UK and it is inevitable that some of that coverage is not going to be something, which is pleasant for Poles to read. The Federation is obviously a lobbying group, one that, perhaps in recent years, has become more vocal. With so many Poles living now in the UK is quite correct that they should have a view and should express it back to the newspapers.'