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Orlen gas station: The state-owned oil company is now making it into the media
Photo: Kacper Pempel / REUTERS
It was a step that was expected for a long time - and then, of all times, it came as a surprise: Poland's government is trying to subdue the private press after the state television and radio stations.
To this end, the state-owned oil company PKN Orlen has taken over the Polska Press media company.
Its publications, including the renowned »Polska The Times«, mainly regional and local newspapers and the portal www.naszemiasto.pl, reach an estimated 17 million readers.
Orlen is said to have paid the previous owner, the publishing group Passauer Neue Presse, 120 million zloty, around 30 million euros.
Critics fear that the government has gained another mouthpiece.
For a long time, politicians of the ruling party »Law and Justice« (PiS) had announced a »repolonization« of the press in the country "German agenda" that Poland wanted to convey a German view of things.
"The Polish press should be Polish."
Jarosław Kaczyński, head of the right-wing national party PiS
“The Polish press should be Polish,” said PiS boss Jarosław Kaczyński once: “We cannot forbid that it takes part in externally inspired campaigns and paints a completely wrong image of Poland.
But we can help to ensure that there are more media 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 from the OMD media agency.
The government is using capital from a state company to bring newspapers under control.
The state oil company Orlen has always been the main prize of every election winner in Poland.
Five years ago, PiS also hurried to appoint a new top management made up of loyal followers.
Viktor Orbán is proceeding in a very similar way in Hungary: he has unpleasant media, such as the 2016 newspaper Népszabadság or recently the portal index.hu, bought up by friends of his business bosses.
They either shut it down or bring the editorial team on line.
Since the beginning of his rule in 2010, Orbán has relied on a whole group of oligarchs whom he made rich with state contracts.
As a small thank you, in 2018 they bequeathed more than 300 local newspapers, online portals, television and radio stations from their property to a foundation that happens to be run by a loyal Orbán.
Experts assume that the Hungarian prime minister actually controls around 90 percent of the press in his country.
Alone against the rest of the EU
That's why Orbán is currently in a more comfortable situation than his buddies in Warsaw.
In the dispute over the rule of law at home, he 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 a Brussels corona expansion package (total value almost 1.8 trillion euros).
They wanted to prevent that in future only countries receive money from the EU in which 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 elsewhere in the country.
For weeks, young people in particular have taken to the streets against the rigorous tightening of abortion law.
Entrepreneurs and local politicians are on the pinnacle of the thought that Poles could slip corona aid by the rags.
A little good press would do it.
And Polska Press is an ideal choice from a PiS point of view.
The group's newspapers tend to serve a rural audience - that's where the right-wing conservatives have their electorate base.
In the editorial offices, the workforce is now afraid of being hacked down.
A journalist told the 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. "
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