LONDON — A press officer for Poland's new Solidarity-led government had just finished giving his first briefing to the news media last year when several local reporters followed him back to his office.

"What are we supposed to write? What were the most important points?" they asked the official, who was shocked to encounter such a subservient press corps.

While the Communist lock on political power in Poland has ended, the journalistic practices associated with the regime have not. Just as reporters once repeated the Communist Party line without question, many are prepared to give the new government the same type of uncritical coverage, says Polish journalist Robert Bogdanski, who recounted the story of the press briefing.

To help stimulate change in the Polish news media, the BBC has launched a program designed to introduce broadcasters from that country to the techniques and philosophies behind news coverage in Britain.

Bogdanski, an art history graduate who wound up working as an underground reporter in 1984, is among the participants who have been brought to the U.K. to see how broadcasters work here.

The program, part of the $83-million "know-how" fund that the British government created to help Poland make the transition to democracy, will bring 36 Polish broadcasters, in groups of six, to Britain. Each group will spend six weeks observing the BBC's radio and TV operations, as well as the operations of other broadcast companies.

As part of the course, the visiting journalists also will produce stories for the BBC World Service that will be broadcast back to Poland.

The program is intended to give participants a "warts and all" view of the role of the media in a democratic society, says Gwyneth Henderson, head of BBC World Service training, who designed the program. She emphasizes that it is not a training program, but merely an opportunity for the Poles to see how things are done differently elsewhere.

"We are showing them what we do and telling them why we do it," says Gienek Smolar, head of the BBC World Service's Polish section.

Smolar and Henderson made two trips to Poland to choose journalists for the program. They were looking for broadcast reporters who hadn't been completely immersed in the ways of the previous regime. "We wanted young journalists with open eyes and ears," says Smolar. "The energetic ones. Editors of the future."