Poland wants to tighten media law

Poland's national conservative government plans to present a draft law limiting foreign ownership of Polish media before the summer holidays. The move would reduce Germany's influence on the Polish media market, some commentators write approvingly. Others fear the quality of the press would suffer under such a law.

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Gość Niedzielny (PL) /

100 percent Polish not automatically better

The quality doesn't automatically improve the more Polish a media outlet is, points out Jacek Dziedzina of Gość Niedzielny:

“If people are now talking again about making the media more Polish they should remember that a '100 percent Polish' label on newspapers or TV channels is no guarantee that you should be reading or watching these rather than others. No, of course I'm not trying to trivialise the fact that a large proportion of the press and the websites are owned by foreign investors. Naturally the capital has a national identity. And that identity represents not just opinions, but also interests. The Germans and French are aware of this and also take steps to ensure that foreign companies don't control their media. But the quality of the press doesn't automatically improve just because it becomes more Polish.”

wPolityce.pl (PL) /

Limit influence of German media

Poland must limit Germany's influence in the country, the nationalist web portal wPolityce demands:

“It's high time to put an end to the fifth column activities of the German media. … If bad guys go unpunished they get insolent. … It is also necessary to scrutinise the activities of the German financial institutes Deutsche Bank and mBank - particularly as regards loans given in francs. These institutes have been active in Poland for years. This is why the [security service] ABW has just investigated 18 banks. Moreover, the [Springer-Ringier] website Onet depicts Poland as a dictatorial state along the lines of Syria or North Korea. This has nothing to do with the reality of the situation.”