Get out the vote campaign worked, moans politician

Michael Hedges October 29, 2007

Campaigns by public television to encourage election voting characterize civic responsibility. Democratic participation in elections is a good thing. Encouraging that participation is also a good thing.

But outgoing Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski doesn’t see it that way. Two days after Kaczynski’s Law and Justice Party (PiS) suffered defeat at the hands of Polish voters, and he lost his job, blame fell on Polish public TV (Telewizja Polska TVP). No good turn goes unpunished.

“The campaign explicitly called for votes against Law and Justice,” expounded PM Kaczynski on Polish public radio Tuesday morning (October 23). TVP’s get out the vote campaign used the slogan “Go out to vote – go change Poland,” focusing on participation by young people. That campaign caused people to vote for the Civic Platform party, he charged. Voter turnout was 55.3%, the highest since 1989.

Charges of media manipulation were leveled throughout the election campaign as they had been before the election campaign. And the moaning didn’t end after the votes were counted. Local newspapers moaned. OSCE election monitors moaned. Now, the losers moan.

Not moaning is TVP President Andrzej Urbanski, who on Thursday (October 26) announced his intention to stay at the job he seems to like. Earlier this month he announced his intention to increase TVP’s ad market share by 4% over the next 12 months. Roughly two-thirds of TVP’s operating budget comes from ad and sponsorship sales, the rest from the traditional European TV license fee. And he struck a deal with mobile phone operator PolKomTel and Polish public radio to invest upwards of €250 million for freely distributed digital decoders ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games.

TVP recently launched TVP Info, an all-news channel, formerly known as TVP3. News International’s TV Puls is set for eminent relaunch (October 28) after a €35 million investment from Mr. Murdoch.

September television audience research from TNS OBOP showed TVPs two main channels (TVP1 and TVP2) with 22.7 and 18.5% audience share, respectively. PolSat is ranked number three, 16.5%, and TVN number four, 15%. TV Puls reached 0.5% market share. TVN launched a joint venture business channel with CNBC this summer – TVN CNBC Biznes. PolSat bought TV Biznes, on the air since 2004, for about €5 million in February. New cable and DTT channels are going on the air almost every month. 

Local media observers believe the election tipping point came with a televised debate between Kaczynski and challenger Donald Tusk, leader of Civic Platform and presumed new Polish Prime Minister. Kaczynski, apparently, agrees. "If I’d been better prepared for it or if I’d avoided it altogether, the election results might have been different", he said.

Several Polish media outlets referred to an OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) news release that quoted OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) election monitors critical of TVP’s election coverage, citing bias toward Kaczynski’s Law and Justice Party. OSCE’s preliminary statement criticized TVP for “lack of qualitative balance” and “the absence of effective mechanisms of oversight.” The Polish media regulator National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) was further criticized as “unable to properly to discharge its constitutional responsibility due to deficiencies in its structure and disagreements flowing from its partisan composition.”

In September Polish Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga told OSCE that sending election monitors was “inappropriate.” An OSCE election monitoring team was in Poland from the first week in October after the government capitulated but its final report will not be issued until December at the earliest.

Mr. Urbanski declined comment (Thursday October 26) on reports of OSCE criticism until their final report is released. He was appointed TVP president earlier this year. He had formerly been on President Kaczynski’s staff. By audience share, staff size and number of channels offered TVP is the largest public television broadcaster in the newest EU Member States. With annual ad spending in Poland expected – again – to increase by more than 10%, TVP has considerable financial resources. With a new Parliament set to form in the coming weeks, the TVP Board could well change.

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