W państwach, które określają się demokratycznymi, są takie cykliczne momenty, które mobilizują sporą część społeczeństwa. Mobilizacja ta widoczna jest w różnych obszarach, które dotyczą przestrzeni publicznej: w jednostkach samorządu terytorialnego, w organach władzy samorządowej i centralnej, w środkach społecznego przekazu, we wspólnotach religijnych itd. Ta pewnego rodzaju „nadaktywność” wynika z tego, iż w porządku demokratycznym władze są wybierane przez lud poprzez akt wyborczy. Doświadczenie życiowe oraz przykład polskiej demokracji po 1989 r. pokazuje, iż powyższe założenia w przeważającej części nie zawsze (...) są realizowane. Można jednak mówić o przynajmniej dwóch niepożądanych działaniach kandydatów w ramach kampanii wyborczej: obietnicach wyborczych i korupcji wyborczej. Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie problematyki dotyczącej korupcji wyborczej w świetle etyki personalistycznej. Wybór, pomimo że subiektywny, wydaje się uzasadniony z tego powodu, iż personalizm dotyka kwestii problemów społeczno-politycznych z perspektywy koncepcji dobra wspólnego. (shrink)

The information about patients being murdered by Lodz ambulance doctors using pancuronium bromide , published in the Gazeta Wyborcza,1 was repeated in the international press—for example, in the British Medical Journal.2 The account of a Gazeta Wyborcza reporter who had been working as an undercover stretcher bearer and witnessed the reported events, does not prove that any murder was committed. It was the media that presented the information in a negative light. So far the police have not charged (...) anybody with murder. The ambulance workers and doctors who were selling information about the dead to funeral parlours have been detained.Although it has not been proved that any patients were murdered in Lodz, the way the matter was treated by the media could lead one …. (shrink)

Andrzej Szczypiorski (1928–2000) was a writer and journalist. As a journalist he made his debut in 1947 in “Gromada” and then he cooperated with “Życie Warszawy” and “Film". In 1951 he was a member of literary editor’s office of Polish Radio in Katowice, where he was engaged in reportage and radio’s adaptations of literary works. After short period of work in Teatr Śląski in Katowice and departure to embassy in Copenhagen (Denmark) he arrived to Warsaw and he engaged in cultural (...) journalism. Every week’s feuilletons-commentary in radio and numerous texts printed for example in “Przegląd Kulturalny”, “Życie Warszawy". “Za wolność i lud”, “Nowa Kultura”, “Tygodnik Demokratyczny”, “Tygodnik Kulturalny” made him famous journalist. He was reckoned to be a journalist, who supported obligatory political system. Since 1968 his connections with radio and official press have started to come loose. After next few years he cooperated to “Polityka”, “Odra”, “Problemy Alkoholizmu” and “Literatura". Formation independent press made him publicity in “Zapis”, “Biuletyn Informacyjny", "Bez tytułu". During being internee in the state of war he became concentrated on literary activity. In 1989–1991 years he was a senator. Till his death he published very much (e.g. “Gazeta Wyborcza”, “Wprost”, “Polityka” and “Hustler”) and he took part in television and radio programs, symposiums and cultural meeting in the country and foreign countries. (shrink)

Jan Popiel urodził się dnia 28 I 1914 r. w Brodnicy k. Śremu w Wielkopolsce w głęboko religijnej rodzinie ziemiańskiej. Był synem Michała i Jadwigi z Mańkowskich. Młodość spędził wraz z pięciorgiem rodzeństwa w majątku rodzinnym w Wójczy k. Pacanowa. Dwie jego siostry obrały zakonny stan życia w Zgromadzeniu Sióstr Urszulanek Serca Jezusa Konającego. Pierwszą i drugą klasę gimnazjalną Jan przerabiał prywatnie w latach 1923-1925 i pod koniec roku zdawał egzaminy w Gimnazjum św. Anny w Krakowie. Następne kilka miesięcy wykorzystał (...) na naukę języka niemieckiego. Od 1926 do 1932 r. kształcił się w prowadzonym przez jezuitów zakładzie naukowo-wychowawczym Stella Matutina w Feldkirch, Vorarlberg, w Austrii. Osiem klas gimnazjum klasycznego zakończył egzaminem maturalnym w 1932 r. Maturę nostryfikował przed Komisją Kuratorium Okręgu Szkolnego Krakowskiego. (shrink)

Jan Popiel urodził się dnia 28 I 1914 r. w Brodnicy k. Śremu w Wielkopolsce w głęboko religijnej rodzinie ziemiańskiej. Był synem Michała i Jadwigi z Mańkowskich. Młodość spędził wraz z pięciorgiem rodzeństwa w majątku rodzinnym w Wójczy k. Pacanowa. Dwie jego siostry obrały zakonny stan życia w Zgromadzeniu Sióstr Urszulanek Serca Jezusa Konającego. Pierwszą i drugą klasę gimnazjalną Jan przerabiał prywatnie w latach 1923-1925 i pod koniec roku zdawał egzaminy w Gimnazjum św. Anny w Krakowie. Następne kilka miesięcy wykorzystał (...) na naukę języka niemieckiego. Od 1926 do 1932 r. kształcił się w prowadzonym przez jezuitów zakładzie naukowo-wychowawczym Stella Matutina w Feldkirch, Vorarlberg, w Austrii. Osiem klas gimnazjum klasycznego zakończył egzaminem maturalnym w 1932 r. Maturę nostryfikował przed Komisją Kuratorium Okręgu Szkolnego Krakowskiego. (shrink)

The article is an attempt to determine the role of the media in shaping the image of the Polish- German borderlands. As examples, press releases published (from August 1994 to November 1996) in Gazeta Pogranicza [Borderland Gazette] were used. The newspaper is the result of cooperation between local editorial supplements to Gazeta Wyborcza and the Brandenburg regional daily newspaper Märkische Oderzeitung. An important element of this research is the assumption that the foundation of any international communication is the need (...) to know and understand. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:LettersZbigniew Szawarski and Jacek A. PiatkiewiczPolish Code of Medical EthicsMadam:In the December 1992 issue of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal you published the Polish Code of Medical Ethics with introductions by Jacek A. Piatkiewicz and Robert Baker. Jacek Piatkiewicz writes (p. 362), and Robert Baker follows him, that the new code "was approved by an overwhelming majority (449 for, 75 against, 58 abstaining)." I am afraid that these (...) figures are inconsistent with the data supplied by the Polish mass media. The leading Polish newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza (16 December 1991), states that 354 delegates voted for the new code and 317 against it. The same figures are quoted by the most authoritative Polish political weekly, Polityka (4 January 1992).Mr. Piatkiewicz does not mention either that 40 delegates left the convention before the vote in protest over the undemocratic proceedings. If we add those 40 potentially negative votes to the 317 votes against, then the result is not at all "an overwhelming approval" for the new code.I am not a physician myself, and I was not present at the Second National Congress of Physicians in Bielsko-Biala, however, I find this discrepancy disturbing. Respect for facts seems to me equally imperative as respect for human life.Jacek A. Piatkiewicz Replies:In his letter Mr. Szawarski denies the data I presented on the vote approving the Polish Code of Medical Ethics. He has quoted the figures published by the Polish mass media as the true ones. Interestingly enough, he did not try to confirm them with the Polish General Medical Chamber, which has the original documents on the Extraordinary Second National Congress of Physicians. The figures I cited regarding the Code's approval are clearly stated on page 63 of the Congress proceedings.So where do the figures presented in Mr. Szawarski's letter come from? As Mr. Szawarski states, these figures have been published in some Polish newspapers, among them "the most authoritative Polish political weekly, Polityka" (a description that was especially accurate during the Communist period of Poland's history). The figures are simply untrue. The figures presented refer only to the result of the vote on article 37 of the Code, which concerns abortion. The very narrow margin (354 for, 317 against, 38 abstaining) decided the formulation of the exceptions to the abortion ban, which are "saving the mother's life and health" and "when pregnancy is the result of a criminal act." But what was the alternative considered in the vote? It was the single exception, "to save the mother's life," that was in the [End Page 355] original draft of the Code (page 44 of the Congress proceedings).Mr. Szawarski finds the discrepancy in the figures cited disturbing. I am disturbed too, but the cause of my concern is of a completely different nature. Why does Mr. Szawarski not try to reconcile "the discrepancy" by asking organizers of the Congress for an explanation?Zbigniew SzawarskiCentre for Philosophy and Health Care University of Swansea, WalesJacek A. PiatkiewiczGeneral Medical Council of PolandCopyright © 1993 The Johns Hopkins University Press... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:LettersZbigniew Szawarski and Jacek A. PiatkiewiczPolish Code of Medical EthicsMadam:In the December 1992 issue of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal you published the Polish Code of Medical Ethics with introductions by Jacek A. Piatkiewicz and Robert Baker. Jacek Piatkiewicz writes (p. 362), and Robert Baker follows him, that the new code "was approved by an overwhelming majority (449 for, 75 against, 58 abstaining)." I am afraid that these (...) figures are inconsistent with the data supplied by the Polish mass media. The leading Polish newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza (16 December 1991), states that 354 delegates voted for the new code and 317 against it. The same figures are quoted by the most authoritative Polish political weekly, Polityka (4 January 1992).Mr. Piatkiewicz does not mention either that 40 delegates left the convention before the vote in protest over the undemocratic proceedings. If we add those 40 potentially negative votes to the 317 votes against, then the result is not at all "an overwhelming approval" for the new code.I am not a physician myself, and I was not present at the Second National Congress of Physicians in Bielsko-Biala, however, I find this discrepancy disturbing. Respect for facts seems to me equally imperative as respect for human life.Jacek A. Piatkiewicz Replies:In his letter Mr. Szawarski denies the data I presented on the vote approving the Polish Code of Medical Ethics. He has quoted the figures published by the Polish mass media as the true ones. Interestingly enough, he did not try to confirm them with the Polish General Medical Chamber, which has the original documents on the Extraordinary Second National Congress of Physicians. The figures I cited regarding the Code's approval are clearly stated on page 63 of the Congress proceedings.So where do the figures presented in Mr. Szawarski's letter come from? As Mr. Szawarski states, these figures have been published in some Polish newspapers, among them "the most authoritative Polish political weekly, Polityka" (a description that was especially accurate during the Communist period of Poland's history). The figures are simply untrue. The figures presented refer only to the result of the vote on article 37 of the Code, which concerns abortion. The very narrow margin (354 for, 317 against, 38 abstaining) decided the formulation of the exceptions to the abortion ban, which are "saving the mother's life and health" and "when pregnancy is the result of a criminal act." But what was the alternative considered in the vote? It was the single exception, "to save the mother's life," that was in the [End Page 355] original draft of the Code (page 44 of the Congress proceedings).Mr. Szawarski finds the discrepancy in the figures cited disturbing. I am disturbed too, but the cause of my concern is of a completely different nature. Why does Mr. Szawarski not try to reconcile "the discrepancy" by asking organizers of the Congress for an explanation?Zbigniew SzawarskiCentre for Philosophy and Health Care University of Swansea, WalesJacek A. PiatkiewiczGeneral Medical Council of PolandCopyright © 1993 The Johns Hopkins University Press... (shrink)

Od wieków przemocy jest coraz mniej. Prawdopodobnie żyjemy dziś w najspokojniejszej epoce w dziejach człowieka na ziemi.