Reporting social protests as a reaction to the sentence Of the Constitutional Tribunal of 22.10.2020 on the premises allowing legal abortion in Poland. Comparative analysis of „Fakty” TVN, „Wiadomości” TVP1 and „Wydarzenia” Polsat

Abstract

The authors of the article analyzed how television news programs covered social protests following the ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal. It concerned the inconsistency with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of the provisions of the Act of 7 January 1993 on family planning, protection of the human fetus, and the conditions for permissibility of pregnancy termination, which permitted abortion in the case of the occurrence of an embryopathological premise. A hypothesis was formulated according to which the way of reporting on social protests depends on the political bias of a given TV station, which is reflected in the created narrative around the discussed events. The research was conducted on a sample of selected news programs – „Fakty” TVN, „Wiadomości” TVP1, and „Wydarzenia” Polsat - which covered events taking place from the day of the above-mentioned judgment to one of the largest demonstrations in Poland - the "March on Warsaw". The analysis was carried out by means of quantitative and qualitative methods, selecting criteria concerning, among others, the time devoted to the coverage of social protests and the ruling, the presentation of the statements of individual parties to the conflict, and the narration given to the events in question.