Politicians Change Media Strategy, Bet On Next Election

Michael Hedges July 3, 2019 - Follow on Twitter

The media playbook for politicians was written, sadly, many years ago. Disinformation is, also sadly, quite effective. Total control over every platform is not simply a good strategy. It is the only strategy.

Since its entry into government, Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) party has grumbled about foreign media ownership. New ministers and party leaders called for a “repolonization” to dissuade publishers and broadcasters from being too critical or getting too comfortable. Mostly, this has been more bark than bite.

The PiS ministers have changed strategy. “We are not talking about repolonization, rather about deconcentration,” said Minister of Culture and National Heritage Piotr Glinski to state radio channel Trojka (July 3). “We do not hide that we have prepared some projects for a long time, but they are waiting for their political time.” (See more about media in Poland here)

A few months ago, PiS leaders were particularly vexed by Czech Media Invest deciding to offload the Eurozet radio assets it has acquired a few months earlier, more so when publisher Agora Group with Czech venture capital SFS Ventures became the new owner. Agora Group publishes daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, editorially critical of the PiS and its leaders. Investor group SFS Ventures was also challenged by right-wing politicians as one of its participants is Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF), which was founded by philanthropist George Soros, a magnet for right-wing hate across Eastern Europe.

Early in 2018, major broadcaster TVN was acquired by Discovery Communications from Scripps Networks International (SNI) for US$14.6 billion. As both Discovery and SNI are US-based companies and PiS leaders are very hesitant to get sideways with the current US administration, they were speechless. Media concentration law, they found, does not work backwards.

But the most PiS ire has been directed toward “German press,” largely meaning publisher Ringier Axel Springer, which publishes top tabloid Fakt, news magazine Newsweek Polska and news portal onet.pl. Other publishing groups based in Germany, including Bauer Media, have been active in Polish media development for several years. One PiS leader suggested making business so difficult, largely through advertising restrictions, that German media houses would decide to exit at terms acceptable to PiS-friendly publishers or, even, the government in the Hungarian model.

Mostly, political populists and neo-nationalists twist themselves into rhetorical pretzels."We should talk not about media repolonization, but about deconcentration and counteracting monopolization on the media market,” said National Media Council (Rada Mediów Narodowych) president and PiS appointee Krzysztof Czabański, quoted by media portal wirtualnemedia.pl (July 2). “The fight with private media is out of the question.” The National Media Council was formed in 2016 and administers state radio and television operations.

By the end of this year Poles will vote for all members of both houses of parliament. Media policy could be front and center for the PiS. “A self-respecting state and nation cannot allow most of its media to be in other people’s hands,” said Minister of Science and Higher Education Jaroslaw Gowin on state TV channel TVP1 (June 26). “And this is a task our government is facing if we continue to exercise power in the next term.” (See more about elections and media here)

Opposition party Civic Platform (PO) is more focused on state TV broadcaster TVP. “Manipulation in Goebbels style is the only thing TVPiS has to communicate with Poles,” said PO spokesperson Jan Grabiec, quoted by wirtualnemedia.pl (July 2). The PO has suggested, if it has the votes in the next elections, removing state radio and TV from Treasury Ministry control and disbanding the National Media Council.

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• Hot Topics - Media in Poland

• Hot Topics - Elections and Media