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It was a long-awaited step, and then, of all time, it was a surprise: the Polish government is trying to subdue the private press after state radio and television stations. To this end, the state oil company PKN Orlen has taken over the media company Polska Press. Its publications, including the well-known »Polska The Times«, mainly regional and local newspapers and the portal www.naszemiasto.pl, reach about 17 million readers. Orlen is said to have paid the previous owner, the Passauer Neue Presse publishing group, 120 million złoty, about 30 million euros.
Critics fear the government has won another spokesperson. The politicians of the ruling party »Law and Justice« (PiS) had announced a »repolonization« of the press in the country for a long time “German Agenda” that Poland wanted to convey a German vision of things.
“The Polish press should be Polish,” PiS boss Jarosław Kaczyński said: “We cannot prohibit it from taking part in externally inspired campaigns and presenting a completely wrong image of Poland. But we can help ensure that there are more media outlets that see the world realistically. “
Similar strategy, different country
Observers now see the takeover of the Polska Press group as the beginning of this repolonization. “It’s a simple mechanism, the organization of the media market,” says Jakub Bierzynski of the OMD media agency. The government is using capital from a state company to control the newspapers. The state oil company Orlen has always been the main prize of all the winners of the elections in Poland. Five years ago, PiS was also quick to appoint a new top management made up of loyal fans.
Viktor Orbán is doing something very similar in Hungary: Unpleasant media, like the 2016 newspaper Népszabadság or, more recently, the portal index.hu, has befriended business bosses by buying. Either they shut it down or put the editorial team online. Since the beginning of his government in 2010, Orbán has counted on a whole group of oligarchs whom he enriched with state contracts. As a small thank you, in 2018 they bequeathed more than 300 local newspapers, online portals, television and radio stations of their property to a foundation that happens to be headed by a loyal Orbán. Experts assume that the Hungarian prime minister actually controls about 90 percent of the press in his country.
Only against the rest of the EU
That is why Orbán is currently in a more comfortable situation than his colleagues in Warsaw. In the dispute over the rule of law at home, it does not have to endure as much criticism as the PiS in Poland. Both countries had jointly vetoed the EU budget for the next seven years and against a development package from the Brussels crown (total value of almost 1.8 trillion euros). They wanted to avoid that in the future only countries receive money from the EU where the rule of law is intact.
Warsaw and Budapest will go to the summit on Thursday as outsiders with the other 25 EU countries. There is already a lot of unrest in the Polish capital and in other parts of the country. For weeks, young people in particular have taken to the streets against the rigorous tightening of the abortion law. Local businessmen and politicians are at the pinnacle of the idea that Poles could slip the crown’s aid through the rags. A little good press would do that.
And Polska Press is an ideal choice from a PiS point of view. The group’s newspapers tend to serve a rural audience, which is where right-wing conservatives have their constituency base. In editorial offices, the workforce is now afraid of being attacked. A journalist told Gazeta Wyborcza: “You ask what we expect now? They will change as many people as they can, and the rest will write what they want or have to look for a new job. “
