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Poland Liberalization in the 1980s
The imposition of martial law in December 1981 was a
major
setback for independent publishing. But, despite the
confiscation
of printing equipment and the arrest of opposition
leaders, the
clandestine press quickly resumed issuing bulletins. By
the end
of 1982, some forty publishing houses were producing a
great
variety of books, brochures, and serials. Not only did the
Jaruzelski regime fail to infiltrate and shut down such
publishing operations, it allowed considerable freedom of
expression in the "legitimate" press. For example, the
influential Catholic periodical, Tygodnik
Powszechny
(Universal Weekly), founded in 1945, provided an
independent
voice defending the rights of the Polish citizenry.
After the formal suspension of martial law in July
1983, the
regime grew increasingly tolerant toward independent
publishing.
The underground press diversified to reflect the widening
spectrum of opposition points of view. By 1986 only about
half of
the known independent serial titles were organs of
Solidarity.
As the independent press grew more diverse, the state
press
increasingly cited articles published in underground
periodicals
and even began to publish "illegal" books. In 1986 the
regime
granted legal status to Res Publica, a scholarly
underground journal representing a moderate social and
political
philosophy.
Meanwhile, the Catholic press grew ever more prominent
when
dozens of church publications were resurrected after long
being
banned.
The Jaruzelski regime's increasingly liberal attitude
toward
the print media was motivated not only by a desire to
achieve
national reconciliation, but also by the realization that
the
state could not suppress three highly prolific publishing
networks--the underground press, the church-sponsored
press, and
the émigré press in the West. After the mid-1980s, the
nonstate
publishing houses averaged 500 to 600 new titles annually.
Data as of October 1992
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