The Curse, Death and the Maiden. On public financing of performative arts

This text concerns the reflection on the need to distinguish the function of determining the limits of artistic creativity and expression, and the patronage and organization of cultural life financed from public funds. He discusses Polish regulations concerning the influence of public authorities as organizers of cultural life on artistic creation in the field of performing arts and indicates the deficits and the need for clearer indication and application of substantive criteria in decisions about financing and managing artistic life, regarding limits of artistic expression.

The article is dedicated to the writer Bogdan Hamera (1911–1974) and his three works from the socialist realism period. The first, “Na przykład Plewa”, was a model example of a new type of literature that was promoted by the communists. Due to this success, he remained a significant figure in Polish literature in the first half of the 1950s. The article presents the significant moments in Hamera’s life. The most important elements of the books were presented, as well as their reception by the communist censorship. Attempts were made to answer the question of the author experiences’ influence on the shape of the works, their content and the importance of his role in the literature of socialist realism.

Among the laws regulating the press activity, the main one is the obligation to register a daily newspaper or a magazine (Article 20 of the Press Law). The registration application should include the data listed in that Article. Giving the role of a registrating body to the courts and not an administrative body, due to their independent nature, fosters the implementation of the free press rule formulated in Article 14 of the Constitution and developed in Article 1 of the Press Law. The ban on preventive censorship and press licensing is included directly in Article 54 Section 2 of the Constitution (this regulation, however, allows introducing by an Act of Parliament an obligation to obtain a license to run a radio or TV station). The registration mode is a kind of broadly understood application system and it is not included in the press licensing model. Nor does it have anything to do with preventive censorship. Regulations of the Code of Civil Procedure on non-litigious proceedings apply for registration procedure, together with alterations resulting from the Press Law. Magazine registration has two main functions: 1) protecting the name of no longer existing press titles (at the same time protecting the publisher’s right for the press title); 2) protecting the interests of potential readers. The latter case concerns preventing the reader from being misled about the true identity of a given newspaper. The Constitutional Tribunal noticed that the regulation concerning the registration mode is a limitation of the freedom of speech. However, the Tribunal did not find such a limitation that would breach Article 54 Section 1 or Article 31 Section 3 of the Constitution. Publishing a newspaper or a magazine may be suspended if in a given newspaper or magazine the law has been broken at least three times in a year, which has been confirmed by a valid criminal judgment. The regulations do not stipulate the option of cancelling the registration. It is, however, possibile that its validity may expire. According to Article 45 of the Press Law, in force since 19 July 2013, a person publishing a newspaper or a magazine without a license or suspended is subject to a fine. Currently such actions consitute a misdemeanour, and not an offence.