Kierowanie "propagandą sukcesu" w mass mediach
Managing the propaganda of “success” in the mass media

Summary/Abstract: The paper throws some light behind the scenes of the management of the so-called propaganda of success under the rule of Edward Gierek. Decisions, even in minute matters, were taken by the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers Party, which specialised in working with the media, or by the Secretary of the CC, Jerzy Łukaszewicz, who supervised its operations, in person. The most frequent forms of communicating with the media included cyclical collective meetings with editors and leading commentators, daily phone conversations between the Central Committee and editors. The journalists were also controlled by means of numerous summaries and comments to the articles and programmes, as well as by general assessments of the mass media market and particular editorial offices. CC functionaries edited, or rejected, controversial texts prior to their publication and manipulated radio and TV watersheds prior to their transmission. In general, these mechanisms, in combination with the censorship office’s operations, prevented unapproved contents from appearing in the media (to what degree the propaganda of the Gierek years was successful, is another matter). Not everything, however, went as the authorities intended. Evidence for this is even provided in books by Leszek Moczulski, Władysław Bartoszewski, Martia Turlejska and Jerzy Holzer, which challenged the official version of Poland’s history. Their publication was deemed to be a serious oversight by the party and its placemen in the publishing houses.

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