“This is now the frontline of defending Polish democracy”: five expert views on Poland media protest

By Agnieszka Wądołowska

In an unprecedented action, most of Poland’s leading privately owned newspapers, television channels, radio stations and news websites blacked out on Wednesday this week, refusing to provide any content.

“This is where your favourite programme was supposed to be,” read the otherwise blank screens on TV stations. This is what a “media without choice” would look like, wrote newspapers and websites on their blacked-out pages.

The protest was a response to a new tax on advertising proposed by the government, which media outlets say would be financially crippling for many of them. Many also argue that it is a political move intended to strike in particular at media critical of the ruling party.

Public media, which are under government influence, and some private outlets – mostly supportive of the ruling party – did not join the protest.

The prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has defended the proposed tax, calling it a “solidarity fee” that will be used to boost the health service and culture during the pandemic. The government has argued that similar taxes are levied in other countries.

“These are very wealthy companies; they can afford it to show solidarity and share their profits,” said a government spokesman.

We asked leading editors and academics for their views on the proposed tax, the protest against it, and the media environment in Poland. Because journalists and commentators supportive of the new tax whom we asked for comment declined to speak with us, we have quoted from an editorial written by one of them.

“Orbanisation à la polonaise”

Timothy Garton Ash, political commentator and professor of European Studies at the University of Oxford

The proposed law poses a threat not just to media freedom but to democracy in Poland. In fact, the defence of the independent media is now the frontline of defending liberal democracy in Poland. It’s even more important than issues around the rule of law.

What still distinguishes Poland from Viktor Orbán’s Hungary is, among other things, the fact that Poland still has significant and powerful independent media, while Hungary doesn’t. Yet what is happening now is straight from Orbán’s playbook, Orbanisation à la polonaise. Current attacks on the media and earlier takeover of Polska Press by Orlen are all part of that.

Modern authoritarians inside the EU don’t bother with censorship, they control and limit free speech through ownership and through economic means, like giving all the public advertising to the media they like and large subsidies to the public media, while punishing independent private media by tax extensions or special taxes, and all sorts of ways in which the government can get at the owners of independent media.

What can be done? Part of it is happening at the moment: “solidarność”, actual solidarity of almost all the media and civic society.

Another matter is that much more international attention is to be paid to this. The last US ambassador, Georgette Mosbacher, was very strong on this issue, and with the administration of Joe Biden and the rise of concern over what is going on in Poland and Hungary, there will be more international attention.

Crucially, many of these key media have foreign owners, or partly foreign ownership, and this is the time when they should stick with them and defend them. If you want to be friends with the United States, you don’t try to bully TVN – media owned by Discovery, Inc. If you want to be friends with the EU, you don’t bully Axel Springer into selling its media in Poland.

Jarosław Kaczyński has regarded getting media under control as a top priority for a long time and he has made no secret of the fact. I really want to emphasise that this is the fight for the core of democracy. You are not going to be able to have free and fair elections unless you have strong independent media.

(Compiled by Notes from Poland on the basis of a conversation with Timothy Garton Ash)

“The aim is to wipe out independent media”

Kamila Ceran, editor-in-chief of TOK FM, a leading radio station

I was aware that a number of big media outlets were going to participate in the protest, but I was touched that even smaller, local media – such as little radio stations – joined in. We hadn’t counted on that – why should you expect support from the weakest?

I am convinced that the aim of the proposed changes is to wipe out as many independent media outlets as possible. As we are facing a realistic possibility that some of the media companies won’t be sustainable [with the new tax], especially the smaller ones, as the big fish usually find a way to manage.

The proposed tax is not a tax on gains but on advertising inflows. In practice it means that first you need to pay the tax and only later can you deduct expenses.

As a result it will have the most significant impact on the high-cost segment, for instance radio stations. Even tiny radio stations have very expensive maintenance costs as they not only pay salaries, they need to maintain transmitters and studios, cover the cost of electricity etc.

It’s worth highlighting that the new tax would also cover cinemas. They haven’t even been operating for most of the last year [due to coronavirus restrictions], and their maintenance costs are also sky high.

It’s hard not to perceive these regulations as targeting Agora [one of the largest media companies in Poland and owner of outlets – including TOK FM – often critical of the government as well as of a cinema chain], as all the businesses it owns would be covered by the new tax.

Unfortunately, at this stage we can only count on our viewers, listeners, and internet users. Hopefully their protests may be a way to rescue the free media. We can’t do more ourselves, when the government is just trying to kill the free media.

“We’re defending all free media”

Bartosz Węglarczyk, editor-in-chief at Onet.pl, a leading news website

I was shocked at the scale of the protest. Although we knew about many media outlets, up to the last moment we didn’t know if others would back down or not. Only in the morning, when we started watching blacked-out TV channels and news sites, did we realise how enormous the protest had become.

During the day more and more outlets joined in, but what surprised me the most is the fact that even institutions not involved in the media market expressed their support. For instance, in the morning the website of the city of Rybnik blacked out and many others followed.

I believe the scale of this protest came as a shock to the government too – the best proof of that was all the hatred that poured out onto us from the state media.

It is important to stress that the proposed tax, very similar to what already exists in Hungary, is not going to kill media instantly. At first it will only weaken them. As such it poses a realistic threat to companies like Ringier Axel Springer Poland [owned of Onet], and the most immediate result will be lack of funding for further development.

Media today are extremely costly and investment in new technologies is absolutely essential. If this tax comes into force, we might stop developing, and media which are not developing are effectively withering. Maybe we won’t die out within half a year or a year, but it may well happen in a couple of years.

To understand the current situation, it is vital to look at the broader context of the proposed tax: “repolonisation” of the media [by reducing foreign ownership], restriction of media rights, pursuing media outlets in courts, cutting off public institutions from the media. Can you imagine that the majority of ministers in this government have never given an interview or even talked to Onet? It’s a clear breach of the principle of access to public information.

Today we are defending Onet or TVN, but in fact we are defending all free media, because if they manage to succeed with us, other media will be next in line.

From the political point of view, the pandemic is a really good time for all controversial moves. The government is using it to push its agenda on the judiciary, abortion law, and now on the media market too. They believe you can cover it all with the chaos of the pandemic, tell people that it’s for their own good.

“A Putin-like model”

Tadeusz Kowalski, a professor of economics in the journalism department of the University of Warsaw and former chairman of TVP’s supervisory board

The fact that media were able to agree on holding an unprecedented protest despite their divisions shows how acute the threat of the government’s proposal is for people running media businesses.

As was to be expected, there is a split: public media and the rest. In my opinion, this is a disgrace for public media, which don’t feel they are part of a community with all other players on the market.

The proposed tax is a cover for certain policies for dealing with the media, which in the case of this government are very blunt.

[Previously] public media were destroyed and subjected entirely to political power, a phoney organisation – the National Media Council [a state body overseeing public media] – was created, which is unable to take any independent decisions, then a state oil firm took over lots of local media, and the government is pumping lots of money into the state media, which at this point should really be called “party media”.

In some European countries the taxes are diversified, or media are totally exempt from tax, in order to support them during the pandemic. This is actually the role the state should play; it should support the media during this challenging time. Because without them, there is no public debate, they are essential for the whole society.

The infatuation of the current government with Budapest is of course clear. Yet I think that it’s rather a Russian, Putin-like, model – where Gazprom, Łukoil, Rosnieft and other state controlled companies are buying out media outlets – that is now being put into practice. It all boils down to the idea of taking back control, in order to totally destroy independent thought.

This proposal might still turn out to be just a cynical move and deliberate triggering of a conflict. The government might still back down. When the [animal rights] “fur law” was proposed, everyone believed that there was no way out, but then it never became law. It was put in the parliamentary “freezer” and it’s still waiting there. This proposal might end up in the same place.

“It’s about enormous money”

Marzena Nykiel, editor-in-chief of wPolityce, a conservative news website, wrote:

Each attempt to strengthen the media with Polish capital ends up with a blazing row. It was no different this time, when a proposal to introduce a solidarity tax, which the media could pay from their advertising gains, was announced. The main media companies decided to take the most radical step and suspended their activities.

Why, instead of discussing the project and working out satisfactory solutions, did they opt to deprive their viewers of access to information and entertainment? In order to sow anxiety, to enrage and to evoke associations with the [communist-era] martial law, which is being worked up by opposition politicians in social media.

There is no doubt that this is about enormous money….If they were openly fighting for money, it would not be a problem. The thing is, they brought out the big guns and persuaded the public that it is a fight about freedom of speech. And this is unacceptable. Media which put their economic interest before truth, reveal their true nature.

Main image credit: Adam Stepien / Agencja Gazeta

Agnieszka Wądołowska

Agnieszka Wądołowska is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She has previously worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie Obcasy, Duży Format, Midrasz and Kultura Liberalna