Investigation authority should not be dependent on the government

Poland is planning a new law that will make the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) even more dependent on the government. The IPN houses files on former collaborators with the Communist state security service. The conservative daily Rzeczpospolita levels criticism at the law: "The IPN legislation project makes this authority subordinate to the government and thus makes it dependent on those who have no interest in revising our recent past. This is nothing less than the introduction of censorship. The IPN has ended up losing its right to exist. The provision under which the director of the institute can be replaced by a simple majority in parliament puts him at the mercy of those who happen to have the majority. In the past this required a 60-percent majority. … It is unlikely that a director who is at the mercy of those in power will do anything that could lead to his own resignation."

» full article (external link, Polish)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Remembrance culture, » Poland
All available articles from » Bronislaw Wildstein

» To the complete press review of Wednesday, September 9, 2009