ISSN: 2560-1601

Vol. 27, No. 1 (PL)

March 2020

Poland political briefing: Case of the public media funding Joanna Ciesielska-Klikowska

1052 Budapest Petőfi Sándor utca 11.

+36 1 5858 690 Kiadó: Kína-KKE Intézet Nonprofit Kft. [email protected] Szerkesztésért felelős személy: Chen Xin

Kiadásért felelős személy: Huang Ping china-cee.eu 2017/01

Case of the public media funding

In 2020, Polish Television and Polish Radio are to receive up to PLN 1.95 billion in subscription compensation for lost revenues. The project in this matter was submitted by party deputies in December 2019, and work on the adoption of this solution lasted in January and February 2020. As Deputy Minister of Culture indicates, this amount does not violate the rules of competition, therefore it is allowed public aid. In fact, this is additional aid for a state-owned company, but the amount of funding caused a political storm. Opposition parties united in the fight against this solution, set a trap for the authorities - they were lobbying that the money in this amount should be allocated to support Polish oncology, not public media. A problem in this matter can only be resolved by the President, who has the option of vetoing the bill and thus not transferring money to public media broadcasters. The decision to use the veto right would bring many new supporters to the President, but at the same time he would set up his own party against him. Therefore, the decision is doubly difficult, especially in view of the presidential campaign that has just been carried out.

Public media financing act

The amendment to the act on subscription fees submitted by the deputies of the Law and Justice party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS) indicates that the funds are to be transferred to public media in the form of “treasury securities for individual public radio and television broadcasting units for the implementation of a public mission”. Within 14 days of the act’s entry into force, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage should submit an application to the Minister of Finance for the transfer of these treasury securities to the public radio and television broadcasters. The Minister of Finance would have to determine the details of the issue of these securities (date, unit nominal value and interest rate or method of its calculation, as well as the manner and dates of payment of the principal and incidental claims). Therefore, the Ministry is to hand over treasury securities worth PLN 1.95 billion to public media (EUR 460 million), and then they are to be bought by the State Treasury within the set deadline.

Such a high amount of compensation was defined by the National Broadcasting Council (which is a state body that, according to the Constitution, is to safeguard freedom of speech, the right to information and the public interest in radio and television), which was taking into account the average annual number of people exempt from paying subscription and the

1 estimated number of people exempt from this charge, who, however, did not register their TVs and radio receivers (based on Central Statistical Office data).

In practice, Polish Television (TVP) and Polish Radio (PR) are Polish public television and radio broadcasters and also a joint stock companies of the State Treasury. TVP has a number of nationwide television channels (including thematic channels for children and adolescents, about history, series, entertainment, etc.), international channels (TVP Polonia) and regional channels (in individual voivodships). Similarly, Polish Radio is responsible for broadcasting nationwide and international radio programs. There are also 16 regional companies of Polish Radio in each voivodship city.

Both entities make a living from a variety of sources. These are: 1. revenues from subscription, which should be paid by all media users (private individuals, companies, service companies); 2. revenues from advertisements broadcast on television and radio; 3. revenues from sponsorship agreements.

The assumption is that revenues from these three sources are to compensate for the expenses of media companies. Meanwhile, however, this does not happen, and both TVP and Polish Radio suffer annual financial losses.

This results directly from all problems with subscription collection - in there is a statutory obligation to pay a subscription in connection with having a television and / or radio receiver. In practice, this means that only those who report having it pay the subscription fee. However, if they do not report the fact of having a receiver, then for years they may avoid fees - there is no system of state control, and state offices do not cooperate in this matter with companies supplying television to private households or business. This subscription system has not worked well for many years and only maintains the general fiction of subscription. According to data from the Central Statistical Office, subscription fees are paid by only 31% of entities obliged to pay.

It is for this reason that changing the financing model of TVP and PR is a must. However, the current moves of the government are understood upside down - as a desire to support public channels that are very close to PiS, and are in fact a propaganda tube of the party, government and President, and do not serve the public interest. Contrary to the declarations of the TVP and PR authorities, these media are very much politicized, which is obvious in particular in the cast of key positions - the head of TVP is Jacek Kurski, a longtime MP of Law and Justice, a former member of the PiS political committee; while in the Polish Radio, the head is Agnieszka Kamińska, who was previously the head of the First Program of Polish Radio, and was

2 associated, among others with the right-wing newspapers "Uważam Rze”, Rzeczpospolita", as well as TVP3 Białystok and Polish Radio Białystok.

Controversy around the bill

PiS supports public media for the third time, but earlier these were smaller amounts - PLN 980 million and PLN 1.2 billion (EUR 230 million and EUR 282 million respectively). And because the public media are increasingly dependent on Law and Justice and show this party only in a positive light, while at the same time cutting off the opposition, the opposition parties strongly protest that they should receive such high budget support. Speaker of the Senate Tomasz Grodzki from the opposition (who is a surgeon and transplantologist by profession) presented the idea of spending money for cancer treatment instead for public media - a field dramatically underfunded in the Polish health service. This gained a great applause among all opposition parties and a large part of society.

Due to the slight opposition advantage in the Senate, the bill was rejected there, but MPs in the adopted it once again on February 14th, thereby refusing Grodzki’s offer. At the time of voting, one of PiS deputies, Joanna Lichocka (formerly a TVP employee), showed in a gesture of triumph her middle finger, which circulated the media and became an online viral interpreted as what PiS thinks about the opposition and about cancer patients, and showing the hypocrisy and arrogance of the ruling camp. The indignation caused by the behaviour of MP Lichocka was unprecedented in Polish history and caused that the decision to grant funding to public media became an extremely political matter.

Political significance of the law

PiS found itself trapped - if the act is adopted, meaning signed by the President , then the behavior of the ruling camp will be read as supporting its media at the expense of oncological patients and Polish healthcare in general. If, on the other hand, the President decides to veto the bill, he will appear as a reasonable politician who cares more about the sick, than the interest of his own party. The decision that must be taken may prove to be crucial in the entire presidential campaign, which is currently taking place before the elections planned for May 2020.

Duda’s likely veto on financing TVP at the expense of oncology is a choice between the chance to attract moderate voters who follow politics little but were angry about “Lichocka’s

3 middle finger” on the one hand, and on the other hand the exposure to the party leadership that is preparing for the possible loss of Duda in the presidential election.

Instead of hiding the unpopular act in time or settling the matter with a loan in one of the state-owned banks, PiS has invested in a topic in which social emotions go across the interests of the ruling party. At the same time, a presidential veto means the image failure and ridicule of the entire PiS party, which for many weeks insisted on the need for such funding.

Vetoing the bill, Duda will increase his chances of winning the second round of elections, because he is still their favourite. But the PiS is already seriously counting on his failure, which is why such a blow to the future control of media propaganda - the foundation of PiS power over its own electorate - may end in an unexpected conflict at the least convenient moment when the game is about everything – struggle for the office of the head of state.

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