Pope Papers

How to be a Polish journalist

When Pope John Paul II made his historic homecoming to Poland earlier this month, hundreds of Western journalists covered the trip as they would any fast-breaking major story, constantly revising and updating their reports as events unfolded. But their Polish counterparts had no such need for speed and flexibility. The content of their stories--and the number of accompanying photographs --had been largely dictated by the Polish Communist Party's Central Committee weeks before the Pope arrived.

A ten-page draft of the Central Committee's instructions for local coverage of the papal visit has been smuggled out of Poland. Though the document may have been amended in later drafts, it betrays a remarkable obsession with detail and provides a rare glimpse into the backstage workings of a state-controlled press.

The memo unabashedly noted that some Polish journalists would have "ideological and propaganda tasks" throughout the trip and that their stories, even those in nominally independent church publications, would be scrutinized by two five-man censorship teams. The document also recommended that a group of Polish journalists be assigned as propagandists to accompany "certain Western newsmen who show a hostile bias toward us."

The document left nothing to chance:

"On the opening day of the visit, the morning and afternoon press will publish a picture of the Pope, the news of his arrival, a profile and a commentary to be distributed by PAP [Polish Press Agency]."

The party press "will publish no photographs, only a news item, profile and commentary provided by PAP." Some of the larger newspapers, like Trybuna Ludu (circ. 900,000) and Zycie Warszawy (circ. 360,000), were given permission to publish their own commentaries, as were "sociopolitical weeklies" and some local periodicals. Everything, however, had to be cleared in advance. One topic that was strictly taboo: the political past of the Pope, who was a nemesis of the Communists while Archbishop of Cracow.

After the Pope departed, according to the draft, Poland's illustrated magazines could "publish several pictures (two to four)," and other publications should step up their coverage of international affairs, "especially with regard to events connected with the upcoming signing of the SALT II treaty," to refocus the citizenry's attention on secular matters.

Actual coverage conformed closely to the plan. On June 4, for example, Poland's morning dailies all had virtually the same story of the Pope's arrival at the same place on the front page with the same photograph of the prelate meeting Party First Secretary Edward Gierek. But the scheme to assign Polish journalists to keep troublesome Western counterparts in line was evidently not used; though many of the Poles covering the Pope wrote little, there were no reports of overt propagandizing. Polish state television was not given specific instructions in the memo, but one cameraman admitted that it was under orders not to show the huge crowds that turned out for the Pope. In one case, TV cameras had to remain fixed on the Pope's hovering helicopter for several minutes to avoid any crowd shots.

After the Pope's visit, Zycie Warszawy noted that the event had gone smoothly, although certain unnamed parties--obviously Western journalists--had predicted a "Polish mess" and "Polish disorganization." Mieczyslaw Rakowski, editor of the journal Polityka (circ. 290,000) and a member of the Communist Party's Central Committee, complained that some foreign newsmen "did not always write honestly." He added, with unintended irony, "They wrote as if they had been programmed."

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