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The censorship – key element
of mass communication system
in totalitarian countries (Poland’s case)
Magdalena Mateja (Ph.D.)
Department of Journalism
and Social Communication,
Faculty of Political Sciences
and International Studies,
Nicolaus Copernicus University
in Toruń, Poland (UMK)

Nowadays it is
difficult to find
the material proofs
of communist
censors’ activity…
The censor’s notebook
unreadable
comment on fire
in the church
comment on weekly
magazine cartoon’s
content (disapproval)

The role and place of the censorship agency
in communication system in Poland (1946-1990)
Institutional sender I – communist party and government
(public, apparent)
↓
Institutional sender II – agency for censorship, censors
(secret, classified)
↓
Institutional sender III – editorial office (public, apparent)
↓
Direct sender – journalist (public, apparent)
↓
Public opinion spokesperson (public, apparent)
↓
Receiver (=reader)
Source: A. M. Lewicki, P. Nowak, Manipulacja w mediach,
[in:] Język w mediach masowych, J. Bralczyk,
M. Mosiołek-Kłosińska (ed.), Warszawa 2000, s. 37.

Censorship law
 Special edict in 1946 which established
censorship in communist Poland.
 Gdansk agreement between „Solidarity”
and the communist authorities (1981).
Preventive
censorship became
visible due to
special mark (=4
hyphens in brakets).
Preventive
censorship became
visible due to
special mark (=4
hyphens in brakets).
censor’s
approval

The censor who escaped to Sweden
with copy od censors’ „black book”
Tomasz StrzyżewskiTomasz Strzyżewski

Instructions for censors (examples)
 Forbidden topics: salaries, social policy, export of
meat to the USSR.
 You should try to eliminate the rehabilitation of
democratic Poland (1918-1939) and leaders of
the interwar period.
 It is essential to eliminate any aggregate data
concerning the number of traffic accidents, fires,
drownings, as well as tone down too alarmist
publications on this topic.
 Do not allow any polemics with materials
published in "Tribune of the People" and "New
Road” (=communists’ government press).

Instructions for censors (examples)
 Eliminate information about food poisonings
and epidemics such as influenza.
 The works of X, Y, Z should not be published,
but you can allow the polemics with these
people.
 The ban on publishing data on total consumption
of coffee in Poland.
 Do not allow figures showing the rise of
alcoholism in the whole country to be published
in the mass media.
 Do not allow any information about the bribing
case in Sandomierz (=Polish town).

What censors told about the
system, for which they worked?
 You should supplement the information of a general nature
with words: sometimes, some, not always. For example, the
message:„Police officers steal" should be replaced with:
"Some police officers steal”. (Do you remember Orwell’s
„1984”?)
 By manipulating text, you could even turn it against the
intentions of the author.
 The reader was without a trace of censorship activities "on the
text."
 We knew that the writers and journalists „smuggled”
political allusions - it was the finesse, it made me
satisfaction ...
(quotations from „Great Escape of Censor”, documentary film of Grzegorz Braun)

Aesopian language
(implicit, indirect communication)
The aesopian language as kind of communication
„technique” was present in:
Literature: Andrzejewski’s novels, Mrożek’s short
stories, New Wave poetry, Herbert’s poetry;
Journalism and reportage: Kapuściński’s „The
Emperor”, Kisielewski’s columns;
Films and TV series;
Lyrics in rock music;
Cabaret and satirical (e.g. puppet) shows on TV;
Many others...

 Allusion (e.g. series of associations)
 Periphrasis
 Metaphor
 Pars pro toto
 Irony
 Parabolic narratives
 Purnonsens
 Styling (e.g. parody)
Aesopian language:
means of expression

„The Older Gentlemen Cabaret”
and its nonverbal allusions to the system
Indirect message of:
cylinders,
tails, flowers
in the buttonhole,
old-fashioned
manners?
Meaning: we are not from
communist Poland, we belong
to interwar period Poland, we
don’t look like working class
representatives, we won’t let
to be unified…
1958-1966,
Polish public TV

Do we need a freedom of speech?
 Jerzy Urban, former spokesman
of comunist government: "I think
the jokes are threatened by freedom
of speech. In the communist era you
said a sentence with a Russian accent
and the audience was screaming with
laughter, or used facial expressions
and that was fun."

Thank you for attention 
m.mateja@umk.pl
Magdalena Mateja

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Censorship in communist regime country case of poland

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