Chapter 7
In: Politics and the Media in Poland from the 19th to the 21st Centuries
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Abstract
Scientific objective: The main purpose of the paper is to analyse the operation of communist censorship in the 1960s and 70s in the Polish People’s Republic, including its impact on the national press of the period. The author takes a keen interest in the complex relationships between censors and editors-in-chief, with particular focus on the compromises the latter had to accept to escape bans of single issues or even whole newspapers, by following recommendations imposed by individual censors and the Main Office for the Control of the Press, Publications, and Public Performance. The study of the role of censors in communist Poland has been conducted against a broader context of deliberations on the Platonian genesis behind the idea of censorship and the temptation to use it as a tool for social engineering in modern democracies.
Research methods: In the study, the author used the archival research method and other approaches typical for literary criticism, including the sociology of literature and hermeneutics. Literary criticism methods were applied in the extracts devoted to the press on the literature for the purposes of the interpretation of extracts from actual literary works.
Results and conclusions: Based on the materials of the Main Office for the Control of the Press, Publications, and Public Performance, the paper presents policies applied by censors in the Polish People’s Republic.
Cognitive value: The study is of an interdisciplinary nature, which makes it particularly useful for sociologists, political scientists, historians, literary scholars, and press experts.