Civil Service in the Jurisprudence of the Constitutional Tribunal

The civil service (c.s.) is a key element of any nation of law. As an institution responsible for exercising the public authority c.s. is not free from political pressure and takeover attempts for the purposes of the party. Polish experience in the creation of a politically neutral c.s. has not been impressive. The first regulation was created during the interwar period. After the World War II, the idea of an independent and professional c.s. was gradually dismantled to be completely abandoned in 1974. After the collapse of PRL, until 1996, there were several unsuccessful attempts to revive c.s. In that year the parliament adopted a basis for the c.s. system but even that attempt was subsequently revised in upcoming years by further changes (three new acts of law). Moreover, it has to be pointed out that during those years the actions of decision-makers concerning the c.s. have been the subject of jurisprudence by the Constitutional Tribunal. The rulings issued by the Tribunal have shaped the operational conditions which are important for c.s. and have developed an interpretation of the constitutional axioms of that institution. Analysis of key sentences of the Constitutional Court is the subject of this paper.

This study addresses the positioning of Poland’s public television network (TVP) within the country’s contemporary political system. In a democratic country, the media laws determine journalism practices and the media content. In this study, three perspectives of analysis were used to assess the relationship between the process of politicization and the selection and shaping of news. Three areas of the TVP’s politicization were focused on: media law, journalists, and media content, to show the dependence between these fields and how the news was shaped and presented. Mixed methods of empirical research were used to investigate the raised issues; the authors focused on Polish parliament papers (N = 45) regarding the legal regulations of Polish public broadcasters during the period of 2015–2016; conducted in-depth interviews with journalists with TVP experience (N = 20); and performed a content analysis of the Polish public television channel TVP1’s “Newsnight” news program during the period of February 4–10, 2019. We found that an increased level of politicization at Poland’s TVP led to direct influence on the shape and selection of news.