Originally published in IR Insider in February 2021 (IR Insider page archived)
The front page of Gazeta Wyborcza, a Polish newspaper, with the message ‘Media without choice’. Photo: The Guardian
Polish media outlets ran blank web pages and withheld programming for 24 hours last Wednesday in protest of a tax bill being rushed through parliament by the country’s conservative majority party Law and Justice (PiS). Media outlets claim that the tax, which would levy up to a 15% tax on business advertising revenue, is an attempt at curbing the freedom of the independent press.
The Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Jakub Morawiecki, has indicated that the new tax policy will be used to counter the adverse effects of the pandemic on public funds. The money extracted from the proposed policy will be used for healthcare and cultural purposes. He has also suggested that large corporations like Google and Facebook will pay their share of taxes as well, and that this policy will help level the playing field for domestic news outlets.
Morawiecki has compared the bill to similar policies implemented in France, Italy and Spain, however, many see this bill as a step in the restrictive direction that Hungary has taken over the last few years. Last Tuesday, a Hungarian court forced one of the country’s only independent radio stations, Klubradio, off air and limited its broadcasts to online platforms.
In an open letter to the Morawiecki, 45 signatory media companies stated that the tax on business advertising would extract a maximum of 100 million zloty from international corporations (27 million USD), while Polish media outlets will end up paying as much as 800 million zloty (215 million USD). Newspapers have already been experiencing financial strain due to the emergence of the digital media and more recently COVID-19. A private media executive told Politico that if this tax plan is implemented, some publications can be expected to sell to the government while others will shut down. The executive also said that the money supposedly being raised to preserve monuments and fund healthcare will actually be redirected towards propaganda for PiS.
In recent years, Poland’s public news outlet TVP has been internationally criticized for being the government’s ‘propaganda machine’. While TVP will also be subjected to the new tax, the 2 billion zloty (540 million USD) subsidy it received from the state alongside the user fees it collects are expected to offset the costs of the tax. Other right-wing publishers are also expected to survive given that the tax is dependent on company size and such organizations tend to be small.
These developments in tax policy occur just two months after government-run oil refiner PKN Orlen bought 20 of the 24 regional newspapers in Poland, including some of the largest newspaper groups such as Polska Press.
Press freedom rankings as determined by the organization Reporters without Borders also indicate that freedom of the press under PiS is being curbed as Poland has fallen in its World Press Freedom Index from a rank of 18 in 2015 to a rank of 62 in 2020.
Supporters of the independent and free media have been fighting to counter this
downward trend. A group of 200 protestors gathered before the TVP building on Wednesday evening in the presence of law enforcement personnel to voice their concerns for financial limitations being imposed on the free press. Spokespeople of the European Union and the United States have also expressed their stance in favor of a diverse and independent media landscape.
Whether Prime Minister Morawiecki and his fellow PiS politicians will be able to pass the new tax bill in parliament is yet to be seen. However, the party certainly seems to hold a strong majority that threatens to send Poland down the treacherous path of
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