Poland’s non-government news organisations paused reporting for a full day on February 10 to protest the rightwing government’s plans for a new tax on advertising on the Internet and in the traditional media.

Audiences saw black screens and blank newspaper pages saying “media without choice” instead. Publishers are worried that the new tax – levied on revenue from advertising – is the government’s ploy to weaken media critical of the government.

Reflecting and at the same driving the political polarization in Poland, the country’s media landscape is in two camps. On the one side there is the public media under near-complete control of the government, which made them propaganda channels led by the public broadcaster TVP, together with an array of private pro-government publishers enjoying ad revenue from state-controlled companies. TVP received PLN2bn for its operations directly from the budget last year.

On the opposite side, there are large commercial media, such as the US-owned broadcaster TVN, and some crowdfunded outlets like the news portal Oko Press, mostly very critical of the government from liberal and left-leaning standpoints.

The non-government media said on February 10 that the planned new tax is an “extortion” aiming to weaken them financially in order to blunt critical coverage. The weakened media companies could also shut down or be easier takeover targets by the government in a fashion similar to Hungary, they suggested.

Over the past 10 years, the Hungarian government has tightened its grip on media. Public television and radio stations and the state news agency came under government control in 2011. Private media outlets have been bought up by oligarchs and businesspeople close to the ruling Fidesz party. The recent demise of the country's leading online news site has further narrowed the number of free media outlets in Hungary.

Poland’s ruling coalition led by Law and Justice (PiS) said that the idea behind the tax was that the revenue from it – estimated at PLN800mn (€178mn) – would support the National Health Fund NFZ as well as cultural institutions under strain in the wake of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.

But the projected revenue that the proposed tax bill earmarks for the NFZ is just PLN400mn, less than 0.5% of the fund’s budget, critics have said. The remainder would go to support the government-financed monument fund and a wholly new fund to support “culture and national heritage in the media”.

The rates of the new tax vary 2%-15%, depending on the actual ad revenue. The new tax also covers advertising on the Internet, such as on platforms like Google or Facebook, which the government suggested were the main targets. The government plans for the tax to take effect in July. 

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki dodged answering questions yesterday about the tax also covering Polish media.

Poland’s ombudsman Adam Bodnar said he was “concerned about the government's initiative to introduce a new tax on advertising revenues for the media”. “This may significantly limit the freedom of the media and the freedom of expression, and thus the right of citizens to information,” Bodnar said in a statement. 

The ministry of finance, which spearheads the project, said that it was still going through a “pre-consultation” phase. “Free and independent media are the essence of democracy,” the ministry said in a statement. “But advertising must not be excluded from having to pay a fair share of public levies,” it added. The ministry also said that similar levies exist in other member states of the EU like France, Austria, or Greece.